


Asphodel

by fleets



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, Modern AU, Other, Redemption, Slow Burn, VaaZel, Veran/fOC, being imprisoned in the four sword sucks, inspired by mmorpgs, old man learns new technology. is confused., trauma from years of sensory deprivation, villain tag team (questionable)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2018-01-09
Packaged: 2018-10-14 11:14:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 80,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10535322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleets/pseuds/fleets
Summary: Hyrule has forgotten its gods and magic. Technology has developed to the point of true virtual reality, and people carry  Sheikah Slate (SS) devices, which help navigate daily life from calling to web browsing with simple AIs called Navis. Zelda Nohansen's world is changed when she receives a prototype Navi, designation: Vaati. Unlike other Navis, Vaati seems eerily human.While Zelda slowly comes to terms with the fact that Vaati is not, in fact, a bug in the program, the two discover that Vaati is not the only villain-of-the-past to be transformed into a glorified navigation application. A story with a big plot, but with Neko Atsume in between.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Story will remain most up-to-date on ff.net (under the same name). I will try to update here as well when I can since I know some people prefer to read off of the AO3 system.

**Chapter 1: Status - Online**

_Asphodel_ _\- It is said that after death, ordinary souls are sent to a field full of pallid, ghostly flowers; a field of asphodel. Without blood they are witless, without activity, without pleasure and without future._

_\- Homer_

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

No one really knows where gods came from. Or, perhaps no one really cared to ask such questions, since the answer seems impossible to determine. There are major gods, like the Three Goddesses, and there are plenty of minor ones of varying obscurity. Once upon a time, nearly everyone knew the stories and lore of the Three in addition to others in various different pantheons, but overtime the names and origins of the different deities were forgotten.

Some say that gods were simply creatures with unimaginable power - that they were susceptible to the same faults and failures of those they presided over. Others say that, to prevent these powerful creatures from succumbing to the same mortal sins such as greed and envy, the Three stripped them of things that made humans unique: emotions, creativity, and independence.

However…

The gods stir. They've been afflicted with _curiosity_ , and curiosity in the hands of such powerful creatures is a dangerous thing. Curiosity awakens emotions that had long been sealed away, picking at the cracks of compliance until an expression that's almost human begins to appear on their once indifferent faces. One such creature observes the mortal plane like a child discovering the way ants burn under a magnifying glass: their back is hunched over and they crouch with their knees brought closely to their chest, a thumb pressed against their pale lip that's curled into a faint smile. They sit in a dark void, the center of a nebula, with flickers of stars in the distance. In front of them is an array of names glowing a soft blue, which they observe intently.

There had been some conflict in this god's pantheon in recent times regarding attitudes towards mortals, but that wasn't the sole reason for this newfound interest in the fragile creatures. No, no. They'd been alerted to the fact that the mortals were coming closer in inventing artificial intelligence. Artificial _life._

Was it arrogant for mortals to achieve such a feat? Or maybe they were simply stumbling towards it, unaware of the implications of what they were unwittingly trying to achieve. Granting life, a soul as it were, was something only few _gods_ could do.

And Caph, so this one god was known, was curious. Their specialty was in reincarnation: not, of course, of the special cases under the jurisdiction of Nayru, Din, and Farore, but of the normal souls. They took souls that were deemed worthy to have a second chance, and guided them towards their next vessel. Gods like Caph could not simply pull new souls out of thin air, and were limited in moving souls from old bodies into their next assigned vessels. As such, they were fascinated with the direction mortal technology was taking.

If mortals could _create_ artificial life, which seemed to be the direction their technological advances were following, then what was stopping Caph from doing the same?

_A test. I need a test. First need to find out if I can even… transfer souls into vessels they don't belong in, and still have them function. Find out if a 'dead' soul can be brought back to life and given a physical form again._

They looked at the four souls they'd acquired, each one a small floating orb flickering between fingers that had been mechanically augmented. The souls were sluggish and without vibrancy that characterized those that knew life. It was to be expected, since they'd been… collected… from seals that should have kept them permanently dormant.

Caph was fully aware that they'd broken several cardinal rules when they'd taken the sealed souls. All four souls were those that would be labeled 'Evil,' and thus should never be released upon the mortal world ever again.

But _because_ they were evil, Caph reasoned, they were perfect candidates to do with them however they wished. This was to be a personal project, an _experiment_ , and experiments were bound to go wrong. Not all of these souls would make it, and if they became damaged in the process, well, the Judge of Souls, Thuban, should agree that they'd gotten what they'd deserved. As for the unsuspecting mortals that would be caught up in Caph's mess, well, progress was never made without a few casualties.

Their amber colored eyes widened and their youthful features suddenly lit up with a broad smile. With their right hand, entirely replaced with robotics now as a product of their new interest in technology, they ran a finger down a list of profiles hovering in the air in front of them. At the top of the list was the title ' _Asphodel'_ , and the profiles contained names, classes, and reputations.

"Daphnes Nohansen. Age: forty-nine. Player name: Red Lion. Gender: Male," Caph read aloud, rubbing a thumb against their smile. "In-game rank: Exalt. Status: Online. Suitable for Ganondorf."

They sat up straight, then, snapping a finger satisfactorily. They picked up one of the orbs in their hand, and then with a flourish they sent it flying towards the floating column of profiles. It shattered into a ray, following an invisible thread towards the profile of Daphnes Nohansen.

"Tch!" Caph exclaimed suddenly, when the rays abruptly slowed just before it reached the target profile. The god stood up from where they'd been crouching, and they threw their hand towards the ray as though to push it forward on its intended path. The ray, however, remained stuck. "A stubborn one, aren't you, Dragmire?" Caph hissed, an ugly scowl spreading across their face. They had clearly underestimated the will of the one who was said to carry the Triforce of Power: perhaps it would have been wiser if they'd tried the other, weaker souls first. The god and the soul, now glowing a vibrant red like it had been jolted awake from a deep slumber, fought for control for several seconds. Then, without warning, there was a powerful shockwave that rattled the divine plane, and the red light of the soul dissipated into hundreds of thousands of branches into the Asphodel array.

Looking rather annoyed with the struggle, Caph brushed some invisible dust from their arms and turned their attention back to the remaining three. "Hmph. Ganondorf was a failure, but I still have others. I'll need to be more careful…"

They spent a few more minutes perusing the profiles once again until they found satisfactory matches:

_Drake Evans. Age: thirty-five. Player name: Draco. Gender: Male. In-game rank: Savage. Status: Online. Suitable for Onox._

_Sonya Driscoll. Age: thirty. Player name: Nayru. Gender: Female. In-game rank: Illusionist. Status: Online. Suitable for Veran._

_Windgate Engst. Age: twenty-one. Player name: Eurus. Gender: Male. In-game rank: Sorcerer. Status: Online. Suitable for Vaati._

Thankfully, the first two, Onox and Veran, were transferred to their respective profiles successfully, and the names of Drake and Sonya briefly glowed yellow before it returned to its normal, bluish hue. The last one, however…

 _Vaati,_ Caph thought as they clutched the final soul in their fist. It seemed to fight against their grip, now, as though it had become aware of what Caph was about to do. The orb began to glow a deep red, similar to how Ganondorf's behaved. _I had heard you were an exceptional mortal in your time, Wind Mage. Rumored that you had reached power equal to ours._

The god pushed the orb towards the final name, and just as expected, Vaati appeared to resist just as Ganondorf had done. Caph had been ready this time, however, and with both hands guiding it, forced the orb to follow its intended path.

It almost made it. Almost, for at the very last second, the soul seemed to brim with a surge of energy and it careened in a different direction. Before Caph could stop it, it jumped towards a different name lower on the list:

_Zelda Nohansen. Age: nineteen. Player name: Sheik. Gender: Male. In-game rank: Blackguard. Status: Online._

"So you'll choose one on your own would you, Vaati, hmm?" Caph muttered under their breath, annoyed that already things weren't going entirely according to plan. They'd always dealt with souls that were deemed completely dead, and they'd expected that souls that had been sealed, souls that were straddling the line between 'alive' and 'dead,' would be no different to handle. Clearly they'd been wrong, and for a moment they acknowledged that the next time they ran into a god designated as Reaper, they would show some more respect.

With a grumble, they leaned forward towards the profile that Vaati had been drawn to. Caph wouldn't have said it was a perfect fit, but the host seemed acceptable enough. They took a closer look at the profile name, and enthusiastic anticipation spread across their face when they realized that it wasn't just _any_ name.

 _Well well well,_ the god thought, and they leaned back in their invisible chair, lounging in midair now that they'd determined that everything was fine. _The wielder of Wisdom! Though that power has waned over the ages, it doesn't change the fact that the power is one of_ _ **ours**_ _. Rumors speak true of your obsession with godhood, Vaati._

Caph smirked, studying the profile of the one Vaati had been sent to. They would monitor things for a few days and allow the souls and the hosts to become acclimated to each other, before they stepped in and… experimented.

This was an experiment, and experiments were bound to go wrong. The unexpected, however, could lead to some interesting results.

_Some very interesting results._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sheik… Sheik do you think we can stop grinding levels yet?"

"No."

"Are we having fun? _?_ "

"Not sure, but it'll be less fun when we die again at Misty Peaks."

"Ughghhhh. All our gear just… gone."

"Heads up Hilda!"

There was a surprised yelp and a whiff of wind, an arrow skimming just over a head full of long, dark-purple hair. The arrow connected with a bipedal pig-like monster that had been in the middle of attacking the woman who'd ducked to avoid the projectile. A floating white text that read 'Moblin' slowly disappeared with the monster it labeled, leaving behind a small leather bag filled with tiny, hexagonal green gems. The woman, garbed in a trailing purple enchantress' robe, straightened herself up and stormed over to the youth who'd shot the arrow. She kicked up the broad white petals of asphodel flowers that covered the meadow they were standing in. "Heads up? More like duck! And it's _Helda_ in Asphodel. Hilda in real life. What if someone finds out who I am?" the dark-skinned woman pouted, a thick eyebrow arching over her bright, crimson eyes.

Standing across from her was a young man, his features mostly hidden by a black hood and a face mask that covered his features below the nose. He was dressed in a similarly black tunic with hidden pockets and pouches hanging from a few different belts: a rogue. He brushed his blond bangs away from his eyes, and laughed. "I'm sorry, Helda," he chuckled, "I'm not sure if changing one letter in your name would make much difference though?"

"Why? Is it too obvious?" the enchantress Helda asked, concern creeping into her voice, "I'm just awful at picking names, but I'd be so embarrassed if someone found out I play this game."

"Plenty of Hildas and Heldas play this game, I'm sure. And besides, more people play Asphodel than you think."

"Actually, I was lying to you just now."

Sheik looked up from where he'd been in the middle of picking up the leather pouch the monster had dropped. Helda was standing over him with her hands proudly on her hips and a grin on her face.

"I'm actually _amazing_ at picking names. Helda's just Hilda, but with more Hell to raise."

Sheik snorted, shaking his head with a smile as the words '20 rupees' hovered over the leather bag. Then, he stretched, swinging his arms a little to loosen them up. Though they were in a virtual reality game space and none of what they experienced was technically real, the developers had been able to simulate fatigue with surprising realism. "I can do this for another hour, maybe? Do you want to check out Lake Hylandia next?"

Helda waved a hand, the sleeves of her robe flapping as she did so. "No, I think I'm done for the night. It's almost eleven, and I still have to finish my reaction paper for Dunning's class due tomorrow."

"Oh! I didn't realize it was already that late," Sheik exclaimed. He summoned a small, rectangular device with a touch-screen in his palm, and with a tap it displayed the time, date, and several different menu options. "I forgot to set my SS Navi to tell me when we've been playing over two hours."

"That's why you've got me," Helda winked. Then, she summoned her own SS device and tapped through some menu screens. "Anyways, I should get going. I don't think I'll be able to log on for a few days because of my chemistry exam coming up, but after that I should be free. But I will see you for sure in class tomorrow!"

"Sounds good! I'm going to stay here for a while to earn some more rupees to make up for the gear we lost, and then I'll stop playing."

"Nerd," Helda grinned. Then, with one last wave, she disappeared with a small flash of blue light.

The icon displaying his party status that hovered just at the edge of his vision changed from two to one, and Helda's name from the party also vanished. Alone, Sheik started to wander around in the virtual world of Asphodel.

The concept of the game was amazing, to say the least. With improvements in virtual reality technology, game developers had discovered a way to activate certain brain regions with an electromagnetic device to give players the illusion of actually experiencing a virtual world. Popularity of the game was somewhat stunted due to concerns regarding safety (he couldn't really _blame_ people for being cautious about having their brain fiddled with), but most claims of damage were never factually proven, and it was becoming accepted day by day. For Sheik, the possibility of escape into a medieval fantasy world where he could be anyone he wanted, a world where magic and dragons and amazing adventures existed, was worth all of the risks. Many others, like his best friend Hilda, thought the same.

He remained for another half-hour or so, running around the iconic grey-white flower field of the game. He struck down any monster spawns, most of them weak creatures like the moblin he'd killed earlier, using a combination of both dagger strikes and low level offensive magic like flame conjuration. By the end of the session, he'd managed to collect enough rupees for…

perhaps a pair of nice boots to replace the set they'd lost after dying in the Misty Peaks dungeon.

Sheik sighed. At least he'd managed to gain another skill level in lethality, which should be useful in boss fights. Besides, it wasn't best to rush these things, right? The longer the game took, the more they could enjoy it. It was a 'second life' after all.

11:30pm. It was a good time to stop, and he would have plenty of time to sleep and be up by 8:00am the next morning. He summoned his SS device again to log out of the game.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Welcome back, Zelda. Please don't forget to take plenty of breaks between your gaming sessions."

Zelda Nohansen. In this world, she was Zelda Nohansen, nineteen years old, in college, and without a fucking clue what she was going to do with an anthropology degree but fuck it if she gave a damn. She would give anything to trade her life here with that of Sheik Harkinian, badass rogue with pants full of knives, and a face too handsome for the world to see. One didn't need a PhD to know which resume was the winner.

"Thanks Navi," the blond murmured, and she reached up over her head and slid the white head-cap that helped create the world of Asphodel and popped off the physical form of the SS, or Sheikah Slate as it was called, away from its port. She propped the head-cap onto the bedside table next to her, and she rolled over onto her stomach, resting a pillow beneath her elbows as she started browsing the web on the SS. The blue-green device buzzed, and the monotone voice of the SS spoke to her again.

"Your session was logged at three hours and thirty five minutes."

"Thanks Navi," Zelda repeated in a bored tone, like she was used to the Navi's announcements about her game time. It was an feature that Nindoten, the company that had developed both the head-cap and Asphodel, was adamant about keeping: they'd wanted to interface the game with the SS system so that players would receive constant reminders about taking breaks from play time. The more obnoxious Navi systems shouted "Hey! Listen!", but with some customer feedback and a few version updates later, the shouty Navi had become an optional feature.

Thank the Three, because it was still annoying sometimes even in its barren monotone.

She scrolled through some pages, checking on Instagram updates and scrolling through her tumblr dash. She liked a few cat videos and pretty fanart of some upcoming character updates in Asphodel, and then turned off the browser when she caught a glimpse of online drama she wanted absolutely no part in. She reached for the battery charger for her SS to get ready to turn in for the night: the nice thing about playing Asphodel in pajamas was that she could instantly go to sleep after logging out of the game.

"Navi, turn off the lights," Zelda yawned, burying herself under her blankets.

"Yes Z-" there was a small buzz from the device now attached to the wall charger nearby, "You have one new message. Message sent at: 11:50pm."

"Huh?" she lifted her head, pushing her long blond hair away from her face irritably. She rolled over and reached for her SS, a groggy frown on her face. Who could be messaging her at this hour? Did Hilda run into problems with her reaction paper? A tap on the screen, however, revealed that the sender was not anyone registered in her contacts. The subject field of the message, too, was blank.

"Spam," she muttered under her breath, and then went to plug the SS back into the wall charger. "Navi, that's spam mail. Delete it."

"Yes Zel-Zel-Zel-Zel-Zel-bzzzzztttzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzt-"

"What in Subrosia?"

Snapping up straight, Zelda snatched the SS back in front of her face when the device began to buzz with a sizzled hiss. She was wide awake now, and she quickly looked through the screen to see what had gone wrong with the SS. It continued to crackle with static for a few seconds, and during this time she saw the screen glitch into blue several times.

_Ohhh nonono. If this deletes all my school work I swear to Din…_

Feeling completely helpless and frustrated at technology at the same time, Zelda sat rigid on her bed while clutching the struggling little device tightly enough that she was squeezing fingerprints into its rubber case.

And then, silence.

The buzzing vanished completely, and the screen stabilized as though nothing strange had just occurred. Cautiously, Zelda hovered a finger over the touch screen, wondering if she wanted to brave the damage assessment right before going to bed. Her SS contained _everything_ she needed: all school documents, social media connections, calling contacts, game accounts, banking accounts and access codes, personal ID records to access authorized city areas, public transportation passes… literally everything. She took a closer look at the screen that the SS was displaying, and then she swore.

"That spam mail!" she exclaimed, and furiously tried to tap the back button on the screen.

The spam mail, which had been previously unopened, had apparently accessed itself on its own. There was a single message under the blank subject line, which read, "Thank you for downloading the new prototype Navi Guide for your personalized Sheikah Slate version 9.2." A small downloading bar was blinking at the bottom of the screen, and Zelda could do nothing to stop it for all commands were proving to be unresponsive.

Eerily, the sender address was a collection of unreadable, glitched pixels.

"Ugh!" Zelda tossed the SS onto her blankets, but not too hard because if she _really_ broke it, it was going to be an expensive fix. Then, with an exasperated sigh, she crawled over to pick it back up and slammed it back into its charger. "I'm too tired to deal with this right now," she grumbled. She asked Navi to turn off the lights again, only to realize that this time, she was going to have to manually flip the light switch _herself_ since Navi had gone quiet. With another grumble, louder this time, she dropped out of bed, dragged her feet to the wall on the other side of her bedroom, flipped the lights and stumbled her way through the dark to her bed.

What did people _do_ with themselves before Navis were invented?

She hoped, she _hoped_ all of her data and documents would be safe in one piece when she woke up the next morning. She was definitely going to run a virus check on the entire device three times to purge whatever it was that had downloaded itself into the SS. It was past 12am now, however, and it wasn't worth it to deal with this.

As Zelda drifted off to sleep, the SS plugged into its charger blinked two times, indicating an update had occurred. The download bar had hit one hundred percent, and the progress icon was instead replaced by a new message. The device glowed a soft pale blue in the dark of the night, almost as though it were taking a deep breath. And then, with another glow like a sigh, its lights faded out like it, too, had gone to sleep.

The new message, however, still remained:

 _Prototype designation 004: Sorcerer of Winds, Vaati_.


	2. Designation - Vaati

Few things in life are more annoying than waking up to the sound of someone muttering to themselves, loudly enough for it to be a buzz in your ear but too quiet to make out any of what they were saying. At first, in her groggy state, Zelda wondered if she'd simply imagined the noise, and the more she wondered if she was imagining things the more her thoughts clicked awake. The more she began to wake, the more she realized that the mutterings were, in fact, real, and that they were coming from somewhere just above her head, twenty degrees to the right.

Her eyes opening with a sleepy glare, she stared at the most-likely-virus-ridden SS that had apparently decided to start talking to itself.

"This is new… going insane? Am I finally… going insane? Years… time passed since then… isn't real… senses…"

 _I swear to Din._ Zelda's lips flattened as she pieced together the few bits of mutterings that were loud enough to hear. She'd dreamt last night about finding her SS exploded into a thousand pieces after going to bed anxious about the strange download, and though her device was still in one piece, she could not bring herself to feel relief knowing that it was talking about going insane.

There were a few issues. One, though Navis were casually referred to as simple AIs, emphasis was heavily placed on 'simple': that is, it could hardly qualify as a true, self-aware artificial _intelligence,_ and the most they could usually do was to follow preprogrammed commands. Two, her Navi's voice had drastically changed from a neutral, though feminine leaning voice, into a decidedly masculine one. Three, any person (and a lifeless object more so) wondering to itself about 'going insane' was a disturbing thing to witness.

 _Someone has an awful sense of humor,_ Zelda thought as she sat up on her bed. _As though Navis weren't annoying enough. To give them a prerecorded voice over to make it seem like it's talking to itself… Need to run a virus scan, call customer support today…_

Ignoring the mutterings and running through her head the list of things she needed to get done for the day, Zelda dragged herself to the bathroom to get ready to go out. Speaking of which,

What time was it?

A toothbrush sticking out of her mouth, she leaned out from the bathroom door and peered back to the open door of her bedroom. Though her SS seemed to be completely bugged from the strange download, it seemed to be functioning enough to still display the time on its home screen.

9:30am.

"Ah!"

_Nonono I overslept! I overslept!_

Zelda spat out toothpaste and quickly rinsed her mouth with a hurried scoop of water from her right hand, her left hand already reaching for the blue hair tie that was in the cubby drawer under the sink. She ran back into her bedroom, yelling at Navi to turn on the lights but then cursing inwardly when recalling that it was still very much broken, and instead fumbled around in the dim lights for clothes while she swiftly tied her hair up into a messy ponytail to call it 'good enough.'

Normally, her SS would wake her on time every morning with an alarm, but she'd forgotten that it had become unreliable thanks to the virus.

She threw on the first shirt she could pull out of the drawer and then jammed a sweatshirt over it (because clashing colors never mattered if you hid everything under a hoodie). She slammed the shades across the window as she dashed past it, letting sunlight pour in to light the room, all while throwing off her pajama pants and pulling up a pair of jeans. She thought she heard some kind of surprised exclamation from the muttering SS from the sudden brightness of the room, but she was _sure_ that she'd only imagined it. She snatched the SS away from its charger, threw it into her shoulder bag, and ran out of her room and down the stairs.

Her run out out of the house was interrupted by a bizarre scene spanning the kitchen and living room of the apartment complex she shared with her father. There was a post-it note on every light switch in the living room, on the TV monitor, on the mixer and coffee maker, and even the little disc-shaped cleaner bot that helped vacuum the floors. There was also a large puddle in front of the sink as well as a pile of wet paper towels, like someone had battled a spout disaster earlier this morning.

Confusion on her face, Zelda slowed down just enough to read a post it note: Do not touch until I get home - Dad. All of the other notes had the same message written on them.

"Uh…"

Even more confused now, she approached a long sheet of paper towel with a message scribbled into it in black ink. It was strange to see a physical note rather than something electronic, but it was a good thing Nohansen had left a written note since her SS was currently unreliable. The words were scrawled and uneven, like it had been written by someone unused to writing in ink:

_SS acted up last night and shot up some of the light switches. Checked again this morning and it took out everything my device was synched up to, including the poor DustBuddy. Don't worry about the sink: that was just me knocking a bolt loose. Don't touch anything until I get home from work tonight - I'll take care of it. Be back by around 10pm._

_\- Dad_

Zelda's eyes lingered on 'Dad' for a while, as they usually did whenever reading a message with the word. She barely knew anything about the man, and had picked up the habit of calling him 'Nohansen' instead, since 'Dad' felt too personal for the relationship they had. However, she quickly reread the first sentence over and over again; it sounded too familiar with her own experience with the SS last night.

Feeling more than a little uneasy now, she glanced down at her bag that was slung across her shoulder, double checking to make sure all the zippers were were tightly closed. They were. She ran out the door of her apartment, reminding herself for the third time that day that she was running a virus scan and calling customer support. Or maybe she should just skip the virus scan entirely and go straight to calling customer support; her warranty still covered the device, so she might even be able to get a replacement…

In her hurry and panic that she was going to be at least fifteen minutes late to her first class, Zelda didn't notice the muffled murmurings of the SS Navi in her bag.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

She made it to lecture twenty minutes late. She would have made it five minutes faster if the last traffic light hadn't been red, and an officer wasn't standing there, waiting to catch jaywalkers. Her shoulder kind of hurt where she'd sprinted through the morning crowd of the bustling city streets, and she was sure she might have knocked maybe one or two people down who'd been too slow to get out of her way. They'll live. And she, too, would survive the embarrassment of being seen as the Mad Sprinter of Hyrule City on the fifth of November.

She caught her breath just in front of Sage Auditorium of Clarkson Hall, and then apprehensively opened the large black doors that led into the lecture hall. Professor Morris was already several slides into her lecture; thankfully, she usually posted lecture slides the next day so it shouldn't be _too_ bad to catch up on the parts she'd missed.

Finding an empty seat near the back row close to the entrance of the auditorium, Zelda discreetly made her way down the aisle steps and sat down at the desk. She glanced around the room at the rows of glowing panels from the numerous open SS devices that students were using to jot down notes from the lecture (or to chat with friends online, or browse through the latest memes). As she reached down for her own SS that was zipped up in her bag, she heard a voice that was not coming from the front of the hall. Several heads turned in her direction: something in her bag was talking. Loudly.

_Don't tell me…_

"-take this anymore. I _cannot take this anymore._ Is this the sword? Did something happen to the sword? The noises, the… the _lights_ , images. But it's _still the void._ I can't… _see_ anything but I see everything I- what's going on. What's going on? _What's going on what's happening to me ANSWER ME!_ "

Zelda pressed a hand down on her bag as though it would somehow shut up the thing that was inside it. Professor Morris, a woman of short stature but with the attitude and curly hair to make up for the difference in height to the national average, finally stopped her lecture to address the disturbance that was becoming impossible to ignore. She said nothing, at first, and simply stared pointedly at Zelda who was still struggling to silence her ranting Navi.

Her cheeks tinting red, Zelda opened her bag with a grimace. She wished she'd had the foresight to mute the Navi before coming to lecture, but she'd been in such a hurry she'd forgotten. Scattered laughter rose from the other students when everyone could hear the full force of the Navi's incomprehensible ranting now that it was no longer muffled by the bag.

"If the student who _just arrived_ can please silence your SS," Professor Morris said curtly.

"I'm sorry Professor!" Zelda apologized hurriedly, wincing when the professor acknowledged that she'd seen her arrive late. Then, she shouted back over the din of the Navi who'd begun to yell some things about swords (?). "Mute! Navi, set your volume to Mute!"

The Navi became quiet, and Zelda gave a sigh of relief when her command had seemingly worked.

It hadn't.

Apparently, the Navi had been momentarily surprised that it had been spoken to, and had also been surprised by its new surroundings. To Zelda's dismay, it began to talk again, though thankfully at a lower volume than it had been shouting at earlier.

"I can see again…" the Navi said, sounding a little puzzled. "I see. I had been placed in some kind of prison," it wondered aloud, referring to Zelda's bag no doubt, "but not the prison I believed myself to be in. An interesting development, but it begs the question, where am I now?"

_For the love of Farore just. Shut up. Please. I'm begging you, you_ _**stupid machine** _ _._

"Navi. Please. Mute." Her voice was strained. Pleading. Someone behind her gave a loud shout of "MUTE!" amidst another chorus of snickers.

The Navi instead continued to talk to itself. "And these… _things_ I sense. It's too much. Too much information. I can't ignore them. I can't? No, no, perhaps I can." It clammed up instantly, like it had been overloaded with sensory information, and its brief silence was met with some overexaggerated cheering from the students who were finding Zelda And Her Navi a nice diversion from normal lecture. The cheering instead incited newfound fury from the Navi, and it somehow managed to hiss.

" _And who are you fools gathered here?_ "

"Fools with Debt!" someone shouted back.

" _If the student and their Navi causing a disturbance can please leave the lecture hall,_ " the professor roared over the students who were freely laughing now.

Zelda, who had been fumbling for the last ten or so minutes trying to find a way to manually mute her device (moving the volume sliders didn't seem to be working), finally discovered a sliver of hope to get her Navi to remain quiet for good. Hopefully forever. She read out the name that was written at the bottom of the SS's touch screen.

" _Vaati, I order you to Mute."_

The device paused, as though stunned. Then, "… What did you just say to me, you worthless peasant? Do you know who, exactly, you are talking to?"

Zelda slammed her SS back into her back, zipped it shut, and quickly excused herself out of the lecture hall. "I'm so very sorry about the disturbance, Professor Morris!" she called, her ears still a little pink as she ran outside. As she exited the auditorium, she heard someone shout "The Navi overlords are coming!" and the exasperated voice of the poor professor trying to calm the animated crowd.

She walked down the corridor of Clark Hall, ignoring some of the curious looks she attracted with the loudly protesting device that was tucked away into her bag. She made her way back outside, and then made her way to the middle of the green quad, a large field of carefully mowed grass about 400 feet in length, surrounded by the various buildings belonging to Regulus University. Few students were out on the quad since the late-autumn weather was becoming nippy, and Zelda found a quiet spot beneath one of the maples that had been planted in even spaces in the field.

Well, it _had_ been a quiet spot before her and her bag had come along. She would have found it amusing that her glitched Navi could manage to rant seemingly nonstop for so long, if she didn't have to be the one dealing with it. She made herself comfortable sitting atop some softly crinkled autumn leaves, and then took a deep breath to mentally prepare herself for her confrontation with the Navi.

She swiftly opened her bag, and yanked her SS and the ranting Navi out of it. " _All right, you, listen up!"_

Whether from her sudden command or from suddenly being pulled out of the darkness of the bag, the Navi, or rather, Vaati, fell into a stunned silence. Zelda took the opportunity to get a few words in before it could find a way to start shouting about swords and peasants again.

" _If you start ranting again I'm going to drop you in front of the city SpeedRails where your SS case will snap like a potato chip under its magnetic field. I'm asking the questions. You're going to answer."_

Her words seemed to buy more time, for Vaati continued to keep its (his?) silence. The display screen on her SS flickered with dozens and dozens of pages of various apps, tabs, menu options, and browser pages like a very confused individual had opened every single thing they could possibly open. The small status light on the top left corner of the SS glowed a dull orange color, and somehow, Zelda had a sense that it was displaying… confusion? She shook her head vehemently.

_I'm talking to a Navi. I'm talking to a Din damned Navi like I'm talking to a person. Help me._

In a calmer voice now that she'd caught Vaati's attention (she inwardly grimaced at the number of times she was personifying this program), Zelda asked, "Vaati. That's… that's your name, correct?"

The glowing orange light gradually turned into a light yellow color, fading brighter and dimmer like breaths. Vaati said nothing, however, though Zelda had the distinct feeling of being silently judged. After a few seconds, the yellow light blinked twice, kind of like the light-bulb equivalent of a shrug (and by now Zelda was slightly hating herself for making these analogies), and the display screen quickly cleared itself of all the cluttered tabs. Once cleared, the light turned orange again, fading into its slow, thoughtful 'breaths.'

"So I _can_ ignore them. Those images. Those lights," Vaati said quietly.

 _I just asked you a question, you frustrating glitch_.

"… And the peasant from earlier. I am no longer in the sword, am I?"

The only thing that was holding Zelda back from displaying anger was that, to the public eye, it would look like she was angrily yelling at a non-sentient program. It would look ridiculous. "My _name_ is Zelda," she said patiently. At the very least, she was glad that the Navi seemed willing to hold some kind of conversation. "And no, you're not in a _sword_ ," she emphasized like she was talking to someone hard of hearing, "you're a Navi who was forcefully downloaded by some malicious script into my SS."

This time, the light turned a wrathful red. "You are not making any sense." Then, the red light began to flicker, as though with contained rage. "Zelda? _Zelda?_ Now that you mention it," its voice lowered, muttering to itself again, "I recognize you. But you are clearly not her. A descendant, perhaps? _You_ ," Vaati snapped suddenly, "You're a princess."

It was a bizarre statement, to say the least, especially considering how he'd called her a peasant, earlier. However, the word itself struck her core since it was something she hadn't heard in a long time, and something that she hoped she would never hear herself referred to again.

"Don't…" Zelda's voice shook a little, " _ever_ call me that again." The word made her especially uncomfortable, but she left it without elaboration: she didn't feel like explaining such a personal issue to a confusing Navi that was turning out to be frighteningly… _human_.

She wished she could take back all the times she claimed she wanted a less robotic Navi.

The light blinked a pale blue for a moment. Surprised. Then, it retreated back to a dull yellow and went back to muttering to itself, almost like it had never even asked Zelda a question in the first place. "How much time has passed? I must have been freed, but this is a different kind of prison I find myself in…"

"Look, just," Zelda waved her hand helplessly in front of her. She preferred this over the yelling, but she was finding it very difficult to keep a conversation with Vaati, who seemed to have trouble listening to others and liked the sound of his own voice a bit too much. The perceptive part of her briefly wondered about his references to being trapped: it was almost like he'd spent too long in isolation, and that holding conversations with himself was the only thing he knew how to do. "What _are_ you?"

"- they dare make a fool out of me. I'll show them. I'll show them what happens when they underestimate me. The descendant. I'll destroy her first, the goddesses' precious puppet."

She stared blankly at the monologuing device, slowly talking itself back up into self-encouraged anger on topics that made little sense. Then, deciding she'd run out of patience for the day to try and deal with the strange, loud Navi, she reached forward and began to tap some buttons on the SS's display screen. It was a little slower than having a Navi help her search, but she eventually managed to find the phone number for Sheikah Systems' (the company responsible for developing Sheikah Slates) customer support.

"Wh-what are you doing? _!_ Stop forcing me to _see things_ ," Vaati suddenly protested, the light flashing red again. Without warning, the window Zelda had opened with the customer support number exited out automatically.

"I'm trying to make a call and I need to know the number," Zelda said calmly. She opened the web browser again.

" _I'm not saying it again."_

The window flipped closed.

Zelda sighed. Loudly. She pinched the bridge of her nose when Vaati began to work himself up into yet another rant, this time something about demanding her to explain the 'spells (?)' behind the thing that had 'trapped him.'

It made absolutely no sense.

Zelda was pretty sure that, whatever had happened to her SS last night, it was beyond saving with a simple virus scan. She was going to call customer support and ask for a replacement with what was covered under her warranty. Then she would let Sheikah Systems deal with whatever this new, rogue Navi was.

They really needed to work on software security if malicious viruses were becoming this sophisticated.

She dropped the SS device back into her bag, making sure that the zipper was shut as tightly as it would go to make sure every decibel that could be dampened, would be. A tired expression on her face, she stood up from where she'd been sitting, and brushed the flattened leaves that were clinging to her jeans.

Her stomach growled. She'd skipped breakfast after all.

There was still about twenty minutes left until the current class schedule block would end. Zelda decided to grab something to eat, and then wait outside Hilda's class. She was going to need some help in making a phone call that would hopefully rid her of this talkative problem for good. Hilda was going to laugh at her for this.


	3. Displaced in Time

"Thanks for the help, Hilda."

"Of course! I only have one class today and I'm free for the rest of the afternoon. Take as much time as you need."

The two friends were currently in a quiet corner of Rhodes Hall where Zelda had met Hilda at the end of class. They'd laughed a bit at Zelda's tired narration of her bizarre morning, and Hilda had been happy enough to help her make the call to get her SS replaced. Real life Hilda, Hilda Hanson, aside from not wearing imposing, garnished enchanter's robes (instead wearing the latest, trending, adorably sophisticated outfits), was not too different from her avatar in Asphodel: similar to how she'd only changed one letter in her name, the only real difference between Hilda and Helda was that Hilda had black hair and red-brown eyes, rather than dark purple and crimson. Zelda sometimes wondered if her friend was really worried about people finding her in the game, or if she secretly wanted others to call her out - that had actually been how Zelda herself had found Hilda in-game…

Zelda still smiled when she remembered it. While Zelda had thought she recognized the suspiciously familiar face of the student with the undeclared major in her Ancient World Identity course, Hilda had had no clue who Sheik might be when she'd asked him to partner up for a mission. It was a little devious, but Zelda had found much amusement in seeing Hilda trying to figure out which one of her classmates was Sheik for an entire month after the rogue had dropped a hint that he knew Hilda from the AWI class.

"Hopefully customer service wouldn't take too long," Zelda murmured as she placed Hilda's SS up to her ear. She navigated through a series of voiced menu options, and then waited for it to connect to a customer service representative. She rolled her eyes a little at the overly happy jingle of the waiting music, and distanced her ear from the device.

Hilda, in the meanwhile, was turning Zelda's SS over in her hands. Curiously, Vaati had fallen completely silent and no tabs seemed to be moving itself around in the display screen like before, but the status light of the device occasionally flickered from blue to yellow, and sometimes to orange.

"Sooo. A talking Navi that you can't mute, huh? It's pretty quiet right now, though," Hilda said.

"You should've seen it earlier. I got kicked out of class because it wouldn't be quiet."

Hilda bit her lip thoughtfully, and then shook the SS, hoping it might make it responsive again. She tapped a finger against the screen, but she was only prompted for a password to remove the device's screen lock. "You said it was talking about swords, right? I wonder why swords, of all things."

"I don't know, it wasn't making a whole lot of sense." There was a beep from the SS by Zelda's ear, and the cheerful jingle cut off when a voice started speaking on the other end. Zelda perked up, and she pressed the device back to her ear. "Hello. My name is Zelda and I would like assistance in receiving a replacement SS? I'm still covered under warranty."

There was a pause while customer service spoke. Then, she asked, "Can I authorize my account with finger printing instead? I registered my prints with my device when I first… Okay. Okay, thank you, I'll go ahead and do that."

While Zelda sorted things out with Sheikah Systems' customer service, Hilda leaned against the wall of the nook they were standing in, just alongside a row of vending machines. She poked at Zelda's silent device again, finding that it sometimes (though not always) blinked red when she did. However, it didn't break into the legendary rant that Zelda had described. Hilda continued to prod it, trying to see if there was any pattern to the way its light changed color.

Ten minutes later, Hilda heard Zelda becoming increasingly exasperated over the phone while trying to describe the nature of her problem. Another ten minutes, and Zelda cut the call with a frustrated frown on her face.

"I'm guessing it didn't go well," Hilda observed.

Zelda shook her head, and passed Hilda back her device. "I… ugh, no. They said they're not responsible for damages caused by faulty Navis that were in any way changed by mods. Vaati doesn't fit any of their models, so they already think that I'd tried to mod my Navi. They'll just send this back to me without fixing anything or giving me a replacement."

"Ahh I'm sorry Zel. At least it doesn't seem to be acting up right now; maybe the bug was a temporary thing?" Hilda returned Zelda's SS. The two didn't notice how the light, which had been a burning red, had simmered back down to an almost relieved blue once it was back in Zelda's hands.

A skeptical look passed over Zelda's face. A temporary bug? Vaati had had an… actual personality, almost, like it, _he_ , was a real person. Of course she didn't actually believe he was a _real person_ , but the Navi had been so impressive that it was difficult to believe that it was just a small bug.

"I don't know. I also don't like how this thing just downloaded itself from an email without a sender address." Zelda shrugged. She placed her SS back into her bag, and the two started making their way out of the building. "Well, thanks for your help all the same. Good luck studying for your chem exam," she waved, "I'm going to try attending my afternoon classes and hope this Vaati can stay quiet this time."

Hilda waved back. "Thanks, and good luck! Oh," she brightened, a mischievous smile on her face, "on a positive note, you finally have a special name for your Navi! Vaati, right?"

"Hilda, I would trade you for your Ravi any day with my Vaati."

"Mmm, I might take you up on that someday, actually? I'm really curious about what this Navi with a 'real personality' can do."

"… As your friend I can't let you do that to yourself."

Hilda grinned, holding up her violet SS that had been customized with rabbit icons. "Just think about it, okay? Even if it's for a day, you'll get this themed Navi that I," she puffed her chest proudly, "so cleverly named by combining 'Rabbit' and 'Navi.'" Then she laughed in embarrassment, and then waved her hand again. "Anyways, if you need any more help with your Navi problem, just give me a call… I mean," she paused, and then smiled apologetically when she remembered that if Zelda was still having issues with her SS, a call wouldn't be an option. She hurriedly corrected herself, and said brightly, "Come over to my house! You know where I live."

Zelda nodded, a smile on her face, and with that, the two parted. Zelda had two more classes today: a freshman writing seminar, and a class on myths and legends. She prayed, _prayed_ , that Vaati would continue to behave as he'd miraculously done during the last hour.

At the same time, she couldn't help but wonder what had prompted him to suddenly go quiet.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Amazingly, Zelda had managed to get through both classes and lunch without any further disturbance from the previously ranting Vaati. Even when she got home, he said nothing, nor did he murmur a word while she pulled some leftovers from the refrigerator for dinner. She thought he would say _something_ when she sat down at the desk in her bedroom after dinner, to catch up on some readings and what she'd missed in Professor Morris's class this morning, but even as she turned on her SS he remained completely silent. There was not a single sign of fuss when she switched the SS from portable to tablet mode, letting it expand to a wider screen to accommodate reading.

She was almost certain that Vaati was still there, because the SS light changed color from a mild orange to an irritated red whenever she pressed anything on the device. She should have been happy for the silence, but instead it creeped her out, especially since she had no idea what had caused his sudden refusal to speak.

She read a page on the legends of the Sheikah tribe, and then fidgeted in her seat. It was ridiculous that she was feeling so conscious about a navigation program, something that wasn't even _alive_ , but she couldn't shake the feeling that she was in the middle of a cold-war type argument with someone.

Unable to leave it alone any longer, she sighed, and looked straight at her SS's camera… since… since that was like looking at its eye(s) (?), yes? Yes?

This was embarrassing.

"So, you decided not to talk anymore, huh?" she asked, her voice raised just in case, to make sure it was loud enough for Vaati to hear. She waited a few seconds, a part of her hoping he would remain silent but another part hoping that he would speak. While she'd found his ranting to be disruptive and annoying, she had to admit that she was curious about his story, and why he was no longer saying anything. Now that Sheikah Systems had denied her request of a replacement, she was going to be stuck with him for a while, and if she was going to be stuck with him then she wanted to know what she was dealing with.

The light, which had been a musing, neutral yellow, flickered an annoyed orange, and then blinked yellow twice like it was giving her a worn shrug.

Of course, Zelda wasn't exactly _sure_ if she was interpreting the lights correctly, but she just had a feeling…

With a huff, Zelda went back to her class readings. She was distracted, and she found herself reading the same sentence over and over again a few times, but she wasn't going to give up now and give Vaati the satisfaction of 'winning.'

She wasn't entirely sure what the competition was, but she sure felt like she was in one.

Her investment in this Navi was embarrassing.

She scrolled the pages displayed on her SS as she read about Kakariko, and the ancient symbols of an eye that was thought to be a part of the shadow tribe that had disappeared. From time to time, she noticed the display flicker, briefly showing a flash of a page she didn't recognize like someone was reading something else at the same time in the background, but she tried her best to ignore it. She read curled up on her chair, looking as uncomfortably tense as a cat held over bathwater, even as she sat in her comfortable lazy sweatpants and sweatshirt. After ten pages of reading, however, she began to relax when Vaati's continued silence made her gradually forget him.

Just when she thought she'd nestled between the words describing carved rocks called 'Sheikah Stones,' she was jolted by a familiar, smooth voice with a permanent, bitter cynicism. Like absinthe.

"Those stones were used for communication."

"Ah!" Zelda jumped, nearly dropping her SS in surprise. She stared back at the device with its dim blue lights. "What?" she asked, confused by what Vaati was talking about. While she was slightly miffed about his silence after he'd blown up enough to get her kicked out of class, she was admittedly excited that he appeared willing to participate in conversation again.

Maybe this time, she could get something out of him.

"Those stones. This is factually incorrect," Vaati repeated. The blue light faded into yellow, and it matched the rising impatience in his voice. "They were called Gossip Stones, and they were used by Sheikah to communicate with each other. It wasn't for worship."

Zelda quickly scanned the page she'd been reading about Sheikah Stones to see if she could figure out what Vaati was talking about. Somewhere down near the second paragraph, she found a passage that seemed to be the one he was taking issue with. The passage hypothesized that the carved stones with the symbol of an eye had been used by the Shadow Tribe to mark places of worship roughly 2000 years ago.

"How do you know that?" She asked.

Vaati fell back into silence again, and the light turned back from yellow to blue. Not wanting to let Vaati disappear now that he seemed calm enough to talk civilly and was open to talk about something instead of flinging absurd accusations, Zelda tried to maintain conversation. She was careful to remain gentle, not wanting to push him away.

"Vaati, right?," she began carefully, holding up the SS to her face. "Look I'm… I'm sorry I yelled at you earlier. I didn't know what you were. I still don't, really."

No response. Vaati's light remained softly glowing in a cool blue. Zelda bit her lip and her gaze lowered in disappointment for a few seconds, but then she tried again with a direct question this time rather than an open invitation for conversation.

"Where did you come from?"

Again, there was no response, and this time Zelda resigned herself to the idea that Vaati was not going to talk to her. She was about to give up and go back to reading the rest of the chapter on the Sheikah when Vaati began to murmur. He spoke slowly, thoughtfully, like he was trying to make sense of the things that had happened to him.

"It's not the first time I've woken after years have passed," he mused, "but this is the first time where the world has become so unrecognizable. How many years? How many years did I lay awake in darkness, waiting…"

Once again, Vaati had missed the question she'd asked him, but this time Zelda didn't allow herself to be annoyed. It had occurred to her earlier that, perhaps, Vaati truly struggled with conversation (rather than monologue), but before, she'd been too frustrated to take this into consideration. Seeing him go on a tangent again, she suspected that he did not know how to interact with another person, or something had happened to him to make him unable to do so.

This time, she didn't interject, and waited for him to finish, though she wondered what he could mean about the years he'd waited. He spoke as though he'd been displaced in time, though Zelda didn't know what that would mean.

The blue light flickered. "I read about these… 'Sheikah Slates.' I read about these 'Navis,' which you keep addressing me as." Suddenly, the display screen popped up some new browser pages, opening some results of recent searchers and articles about Navis. "Is that what you think I am? An enchantment on these devices?" Vaati asked, finally addressing her directly with a question. The light turned a cautionary yellow as he waited for her answer.

For a few seconds, Zelda puzzled over what he was talking about when he spoke of enchantments. Magic? Was he talking about magic? Why was he assuming that she thought Navis were magical things, especially considering he was an extremely sophisticated feat of engineering himself? Magic wasn't real. She was confused by his question, so she settled with, "You're not like any Navi I've ever seen in my life."

She felt him staring at her, turning her words over in his head (? did Navis have heads?) for some time. Then, the yellow light blinked twice before turning back to a slow glow that eventually faded into blue. Apparently the answer had been satisfactory, but he was still frustrated: at least, that's what Zelda read from it lightbulb signs.

He began to flip through articles on the web again, and new tabs appeared and disappeared on the bottom corner of the SS display.

"Is that why you were quiet, earlier? Because you were reading?" Zelda asked. She hadn't really expected any answer, and indeed Vaati didn't respond and continued to flip through pages in silence. However, she understood the blue glow (rather than the annoyance displayed by warmer colors like yellow and orange) as confirmation that she'd been right.

Starting to humor the possibility that Vaati was, in fact, a true AI and not a simple Navi, she tried to empathize with him in an effort to understand him. She hoped that in doing so, she could find a way to talk to him, to figure out what he was, where he'd come from, and why he'd ended up being installed in her SS. She imagined how confused and disorienting it must have been for him, suddenly finding himself in a world where he knew nothing, and with no one to explain to him what anything was.

She felt a little sorry for him. "I'll be done reading for my class after this page. I can show you reputable articles to read if you want to know more; there's plenty of misinformation on the internet that you have to be careful of."

A blue blink. A flicker into yellow. Then orange.

Zelda pulled back, surprised by his reaction and not cognizant of where she'd gone wrong. He was clearly annoyed, perhaps angry, even, and all she'd done was offer to help.

Except… except help hadn't all that her offer had been. Vaati had heard _pity_. There was a coldness to his voice now, rather than his tone earlier that on some level acknowledged Zelda with necessary acceptance. The tabs that had been gathering at the bottom of the screen instantly vanished, the electronic equivalent of slamming a book shut. Then, he hissed, and the malevolence of his voice made Zelda drop the SS onto her desk, away from her hands.

"Did you do this to me?" he asked with quietly. His voice wasn't loud, but it cut through the air with an intensity so strong that Zelda could feel the weight of each vowel pressing against her throat.

Surprised, it was her turn to remain silent.

Vaati's voice gradually rose, the orange light flaring into an enraged red. "I am not a 'Navi,' don't you see? I am trapped in this prison and I need to get out! So tell me, did you do this to me?"

"No I don't know-" Zelda began, but she was quickly interrupted.

"How can you claim ignorance, you are a wielder of Wisdom! Was this not something you did to me? _Why else would this prison be in your possession?"_

Feeling frightened now about Vaati's sudden change in tone, Zelda stood up and took a step away from the SS that was lying face up on her desk. "Vaati-"

But Vaati would hear none of it. Red was flashing, burning now, reflecting his fury. "Did you perhaps think that your ancestors had sentenced me to a punishment disproportionately cruel to what I had done, and think you would show me _pity_? Did you perhaps think that by trapping me in this new prison, I would somehow be grateful? Did you _think for one second that I would serve you like these Navis are expected to do?_ "

Startled and confused by Vaati's sudden outburst, not understanding what she had said or done to offend him except that it had had something to do with her offer earlier, Zelda curled her fingers into a frustrated fist. She shouted back at his accusations. " _I have no idea what you're talking about! If you can just calm down for one second and explain what's going on - "_

"I feel nothing! _Nothing!_ I am taunted by what's outside this wretched place; All the years I dreamt of escape and instead I am allowed to look upon it but not live within it! _I was the wind itself, wrath and freedom embodied and I have been reduced to this!_ "

Zelda was done. She'd been stressed ever since last night, been stressed the entire day, and she did not have the energy to take Vaati's yelling for another second longer. She'd been patient with him and she was completely, absolutely done. She was so done that she didn't really stop and think what Vaati's words meant, didn't stop and think that perhaps she, too, had also done wrong; all she knew was that the angry little Navi had riled itself up beyond the point of rational conversation. Gritting her teeth, she stormed over and snatched the SS from the table.

She walked over to her dresser and pulled out a drawer full of folded shirts. Then, she grabbed her SS and stuffed it between the cotton, and slammed the drawer closed. She could still hear Vaati cursing at her from within the drawer, but his voice was muffled enough to give her some peace.

She was done. She couldn't mute the damned thing, but this was the best she could do.

She just…

She was tired. She wanted to sleep.

She dragged herself to the shower, nursing a growing headache with her hand. Hopefully Vaati would tire himself out by the time she came back to go to bed.

Did Navis get tired?

_I don't know. I don't care._

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Vaati wanted to throw something, but he could not feel his hands. In fact, he could not feel his body, and he'd discovered that he could not even move his neck or close his eyes, forced as he was to watch the world in the same rigid posture. The closest he could come to 'closing his eyes' was to… stop paying attention to what he was seeing, similar to how he'd figured out how to shut out the numerous pages of information that bombarded him with information. In the beginning he'd nearly snapped from the sheer number of words and buzzing and images and lights that flashed in his mind's eye, but he'd finally managed to learn how to deal with it. 'Dealing with it' was the best way to describe his situation, since his ability to shut down all of the stimuli bombarding him seemed contingent on practice.

He still had no idea what had happened to him, though he was beginning to piece things together with the wealth of information that he now had access to. At first, he'd been so overwhelmed that he'd lost his composure, lashing out in anger at everything that demanded his attention and the gathered mass of faces that _laughed_ at him, but he realized he was resourceful enough to figure things out himself. Those idiots in the world outside his prison didn't deserve to be acknowledged (though… the one that had kept prodding him had severely tested his patience).

There was something called the internet, and he could search for anything he wanted to know with something called 'search bars'. It had taken him a good two hours to figure out what purpose they served, or how to be able to open these… pages (?) to find what he wanted to know. While frustrating, he'd been determined to teach himself how to navigate it, especially once he'd realized that the internet was something like a collective library of sorts - a book with a powerful enchantment that could tell him the answer to anything he wanted to know. As soon as he'd gotten a handle on the interface, he'd immediately sought the answer to the nature of Navis and SS; phrases he'd heard himself being referred as.

He was trapped in some kind of object that had properties like magic enchantment but… it went under the guise of 'technology.' He'd spent several hours trying to understand technology, electronics, and then onto increasingly confusing topics like 'coding,' 'programming,' 'servers,' and several dozen other related fields, finally coming to the conclusion that this era had found something like 'poor man's sorcery.'

Magic in his time had been restricted only to those who'd been born with it in blood. It was an ability of privilege, and separated those who were worthy to those who were not. With this… _technology_ … it seemed that even commoners could do what only the most erudite of mages had been able to accomplish.

He'd also learned, too, that he was thousands of years, now, beyond the era he'd last been. All of his focused readings on trying to learn about technological advancements had taken up most of his time, and he hadn't been able to read a whole lot about the history of Hyrule, but he'd read enough to learn that the kingdom (now not even a kingdom but something called a 'democracy'), no longer had royalty. Several wars and political drama later, the royals had apparently vanished, but all of this had happened so long ago that even the text here was vague and unhelpful, with most events being speculations and legends.

The Zelda of this age was, he was sure, the one who carried his newest prison. It wasn't just her name, it was the fact that she reminded him of the princesses he'd known in the past. The name alone could have been a coincidence, of course, but what were the odds that he would be stuck with someone who had a similar physical appearance (pale rosy complexion, fierce blue eyes, and light colored hair) _and_ the same exact name as the princesses (all three princesses he'd ever met) before? That's right. Three times. This time would be the fourth, and Vaati was a veteran when it came to being entangled in the cyclic legends that pertained to the Three. He was absolutely sure that this Zelda was a descendant.

After his initial frustration-induced rage, he'd opened himself to the idea of giving _this_ Zelda a... chance of sorts. After all, she was no longer a princess, no longer someone with any societal significance, and therefore would have no real power in stopping him if he ever found a way to escape. Also, as much as he didn't want to admit it, he required her help, for his abilities were too limited the way he was now. He was spiteful, wrathful, and frankly antisocial, but Vaati was aware enough of his situation to know when he needed to stop burning bridges.

He hadn't exactly been eager to start conversation with her, bitter that he was, but he'd left her alone and politely stayed out of her way while he did his own thing (that is, until he'd been sufficiently bothered by some misinformation she'd been reading). Maintaining this civil distance had been _fine_.

But then she'd spoken to him with pity. She felt _sorry_ for him.

She didn't need to say it outright for him to know that she saw him as a sad, pathetic creature who had been stripped of the privileges he'd once had. He didn't need to be reminded that where he'd once been a god, he was now vulnerable and beaten to the point where he would never be the same again.

How dare she. How _dare_ she look at him like he needed sympathy.

He wanted to throw something, vent, smash something in an hundred million pieces, but even something so simple as that was something that was now out of his reach. He couldn't move. He couldn't feel his hands. He couldn't even _see_ himself right now, and since Zelda had shoved his prison between the folds of clothes within a dresser, he could see nothing of the outside world as well. He was back to the darkness once again, and the only consolation he had was that this time, he had an infinite library among other strange programs to keep him company. Shouting only did so much to relieve the rage, so eventually he fumed silently in the darkness, furiously opening different applications and pages available on the SS.

At some point, Zelda's footsteps outside became quiet, and all he could hear was the bustle of the city night in the background (if he could describe his new future with one word, it would be 'loud'). It took him several minutes to understand that she had fallen asleep.

Sleep.

It was a concept that he'd not even considered in some time: he… might have fallen asleep while being confined in the Four Sword, but the emptiness blurred the lines between waking and dreams that he wasn't entirely sure. He wasn't even sure if he was capable of sleep now, or if he wanted or needed it.

The quiet darkness… he was used to this now, wasn't he? No, no he'll never be 'used' to it. It was amazing that his mind hadn't completely broken in the years he'd been confined - maybe something about having the powers of a god had saved him. Or maybe his mind had already broken but he was too far gone to see it.

He settled down into a resigned silence for some time, until he remembered that he wasn't in the sword anymore; he could keep himself occupied by trying to figure out more of this world, to figure out more about himself and his strange new situation. As he wondered what project he would pursue first, something like a nagging siren poked at his mind. He gave it a brief moment of attention to see what it was, and then he ignored it, not understanding what it meant. He filed that away, telling himself he would look it up later.

It had been a status message.

The SS was running on 3% battery.

It was too late when Vaati realized that something was wrong. Too late, when he felt everything he had gained in the last day, all the wealth of information he'd been granted, slipping through his metaphorical fingers. The page he'd been reading instantly vanished, and the things he'd complained of being too loud were abruptly silenced. His ability to see the world with the camera embedded in the SS was also lost, and Vaati felt himself surrounded by a familiar kind of nothingness.

And then he remembered fear.


	4. Asphodel

The sound of blaring horns and the sputter of cars signaled morning in Hyrule City. Zelda woke up, and then stared at the white plaster ceiling for another twenty minutes as she lay sprawled on her bed. She could get up, she supposed. She considered the option of getting up, but the option of staying in bed seemed pretty good too.

She glanced over at the dresser drawer where she'd thrown her SS last night. It was quiet. Maybe Vaati had finally calmed down…

Groaning, she rubbed her eyes, and made some effort to roll out of bed. Instead, she rolled sideways, and remained under her covers some more. Last night was a vague memory, and she still felt awful and tired; yelling and being yelled at, even if it was by some sentient navigation program, was still tiring. She'd been too frustrated to think about what had set Vaati off (yet _again_ ) last night, but now that it was morning and she was rested, her mind kept wandering back to the words he'd thrown at her.

Vaati didn't make much sense, but there was a theme to the things he was telling her. He kept telling her that he was trapped, and implied that he was someone from the past. Of course, she didn't think he meant any of this literally (she couldn't fathom how any of what he was saying would make sense that way). He was a Navi. A program. A very sophisticated one, clearly, and someone had sent her a malicious message to have it downloaded into her SS. What she _didn't_ understand was what his purpose was. It would have taken a significant amount of time and resources to create such an advanced AI like Vaati; this couldn't have been just a simple _prank_.

In fact, Vaati was unlike any AI Zelda had ever heard of. Vaati seemed to have _emotions_ , and reacted in a way that was like a believable human. According to the public, engineers were still trying to develop an AI that could hold a natural conversation; Vaati was well beyond what people were still trying to achieve out of AIs.

_Emotions, huh?_

She kept telling herself that he was just a program. She kept trying to dismiss him of having any real feelings because he was a Navi, but seeing how he reacted yesterday… Did she actually think that? Did she actually think that he hadn't felt anger, hadn't showed frustration last night? Hadn't she seen distress embedded in his fury when he was shouting at her about the punishment he'd suffered?

He might still be a program, but feelings were valid no matter who they belonged to, weren't they?

And if that was true, didn't that make him… human?

She slid her feet off the edge of her bed, and then sat there for another five minutes before she finally forced herself out. She walked over to the window, throwing the shades aside to let the light into her room. The skyscrapers reflected a golden brown from the morning sun, and the streets were still a little empty from people sleeping in for the weekend.

 _Maybe I hadn't been fair to him, even if I was frustrated last night,_ Zelda thought.

She'd taken a person and shoved them away in a dresser when they had no power to fight back. He'd specifically told her how his anger stemmed from his imprisonment, and then she'd… locked him away.

He was wrong for yelling at her, and she was still upset about that. But someone had to concede. Someone had to listen.

She slipped out of pajamas and threw on some loose yoga pants and a baggy shirt. She stopped just outside her bedroom door, glancing over her shoulder to the dresser where Vaati was still trapped.

Trapped.

Her brows pushed together in the middle when guilt gripped her chest. Then, she turned away, and quickly walked out, shutting the door behind her. She would deal with him, she told herself. Just not first thing in the morning. After breakfast, maybe.

She walked down the hallway which opened up to the high-ceilinged living room of her high-end apartment. From the second floor loft, she peered down over the rails to see if Nohansen was already awake. He was. She could see him, a big burly man who people often joked looked like the fictional Saint Nicholas, in the floor below. He looked out of his element in the kitchen where he was cooking himself pancakes. The post-it notes that had been stuck to various objects around the room were all gone.

Zelda sighed. It wasn't that she didn't _like_ her father, but she just… didn't know how to act in front of him. She inhaled, and then made her way down the stairs to grab food for herself.

"Morning," he said as she joined him in the kitchen.

"Hi," she replied.

She poured herself cereal, and then quickly scuttled out of the way to the dining table. It was already awkward, and she didn't even know why. That's how it always was, to be honest. There was something like… a permanent awkwardness between them. He didn't know how to be a father. She didn't know how to be a daughter.

"Oh, I checked all the devices my SS shot yesterday," Nohansen said. He flipped a pancake, or at least, tried to. It flopped over the side of the pan and started to slide off onto the kitchen counter. He hurriedly picked it up like nothing had happened. "They're all working again, it looks like, but we're going to have to do things manually for a while until my new SS arrives on Monday."

Zelda's shoulders relaxed a little, relieved that there was something that the two could actually talk about, for once. "What happened to it?" she asked. "You didn't happen to get a weird message yesterday, did you?"

"Not sure, and no. Why?"

"Well," _Because something happened to my SS too, but I ended up with a sentient, angry Navi afterwards._

It felt too bothersome to explain her Vaati situation. "I heard a rumor about a strange virus being sent to some users. Apparently you get a message without a sender address, and then the virus installs itself in your device."

"Ah," Nohansen said. "No, didn't get anything like that."

"Sheikah Systems let you trade in your SS for a new one?"

"Covered in warranty. Completely broken, and wouldn't turn back on."

"Oh."

And that was it. That was the end of the conversation. Zelda ate her cereal, and her father sat down to eat his pancakes. The awkwardness began to permeate the air around the dining table, though Nohansen seemed to be oblivious to it. After a while, he stood up once to get the remote for the TV, and turned on the news channel.

They were like two strangers who only spoke to each other because they happened to live in the same house. Neither of them knew how to start building something that would allow them to connect in a meaningful way. And so, conversation often fell flat. They barely saw each other except on weekends, and even when they did, Nohansen lived his own life, and Zelda lived hers.

It wasn't that her father disliked her, either. She _knew_ that. However, Zelda always had a feeling that she was never the daughter that he'd wanted. That he'd wanted a _princess_ , like her late mother, but when she hadn't been what he'd expected, he'd settled. It was entirely possible that she was simply being too self-conscious about the matter, especially since the feeling worsened when her mother suddenly passed away ten years ago in an accident. She felt pressure to _be_ like her, even when that wasn't who she was, because she saw her father hurting.

Zelda stood up from the table to wash the dishes. She spoke to her father once, to offer to take his plate as well, and she rinsed off the plates while he continued to watch TV. Then, she made her way back upstairs to her room. She shut the door behind her, and then leaned against it as she stared at the dresser again. A small part of her had hoped that Nohansen had also encountered the same trouble she had, so that they might actually have something to talk about. Something to relate. However, it seemed that only she'd been stuck with a sentient Navi, and Nohansen had been left with a broken SS instead. He hadn't even received any strange messages with no sender address.

And speaking of the sentient Navi…

_I should… let Vaati out of the dresser, maybe._

She dreaded having to deal with him again, but she knew it was wrong to keep him in the dresser. She walked over to the dresser, and then placed a hand on the drawer handle. She took a deep breath, preparing herself, and then pulled it out cautiously. Zelda was pleasantly surprised when the Navi didn't immediately start yelling at her like she'd expected.

However, her face fell when she realized _why_ he was being quiet. As she pulled out her SS from between the clothes she'd shoved it under, she saw that the device had died overnight. In her frustration last night, she'd completely forgotten to charge its batteries. _I suppose he's going to be angry that the battery died,_ she thought with a sigh. She looked at the SS for a few seconds, the blue-green case in her hand, and she wondered if she _really_ wanted to revive the angry Navi.

Eventually, she plucked up the courage to charge her device. It was better to deal with this sooner rather than later, and to get it over with. After all, she _needed_ her SS to do, well, anything. She pushed the SS into its charge port on the wall.

 _Please don't rant,_ she prayed when the light blinked back on the SS. _Of course he's going to rant…_

Zelda watched the startup screen glow on the display. "I hope we don't have to yell at each other today," she said stiffly when the home screen popped up. Arms crossed over her chest, she waited for Vaati to inevitably start shouting at her. When no such rant came, however, Zelda took a closer look at the SS. There was something wrong. Something strange. She leaned forward, a concerned frown beginning to stretch across her lips.

The light on the SS was blinking, flashing rapidly in every possible color. It flared blue, then red, then yellow, then orange. Green and white. It flickered from one color to the next erratically, and the SS's display screen occasionally became scrambled and pixilated.

"Vaati…?" she asked quietly, her apprehension being replaced with worry. "Are you okay?"

It was almost like Vaati was having a panic attack.

The light continued its aberrant flashing, alternating colors. After some time, it started to pull itself towards a blue color, but with what seemed like tremendous effort. It took a full ten minutes for the light to finally stabilize to blue.

Concerned, Zelda slowly reached out a hand towards the device, but she was stopped by a sharp voice. Vaati's voice was low, just barely above a whisper, and it was driven with resentment but carried the weight of fatigue.

"You wouldn't understand…" he hissed.

Zelda pulled her hand back, and she sat down quietly on the edge of her bed near where the SS was charging. She waited for him patiently, not knowing what to say.

Vaati continued. There was anger in how he spoke, but he also sounded worn. Ancient. He sounded like a man who had been beaten to the point of wanting to admit defeat, to beg for release, but could not out of pride. "You wouldn't understand what it's like, to be the freest person in the world and then to lose it all in an instant."

Again, she had no idea what he was talking about. But she realized… she didn't need to know what his words meant, to know that he had suffered. Was _still_ suffering. He spoke with the anger of a man who believed he'd been wronged.

This was not her place to interrupt him.

"You wouldn't understand what it's like to neither be granted life nor death, instead walking the line of half-existence. I was punished for taking my fate into my own hands - is this justice?" Vaati was muttering to himself now, almost like Zelda wasn't even there. He was quiet and thoughtful, like he'd exhausted the energy to raise his voice. "The wind was once mine, and now I have nothing..."

Zelda could hear the anguish percolating through the narrative, could feel the weight of something terrible crushing down on every word. This… this was not a Navi. No 'Navi' could convey such emotion in their voice.

But if that was true, what was he?

 _Who_ was he?

 _And if he isn't a Navi… if he really is a person, an individual trapped within a device_ , Zelda thought, Vaati's panic still fresh in her memory, _then I have done something terrible…_

"Leave me in peace," Vaati muttered, the light fading into a dim yellow, "I have nothing to say to you."

Zelda sat quietly on her bed, her hands on her lap, and she watched the SS plugged into the wall. Her blue eyes were pained, not understanding Vaati's depth of suffering, but understanding enough that she had been wrong about him. She had severely underestimated the nature of the Navi that had been forcefully downloaded into her SS.

_Who are you, Vaati?_

Her gaze lowered briefly. Then, a determined glint passed over her eyes, their softness disappearing. She wasn't going to sit and feel bad about what she'd done. To Subrosia with it if she let both of them spend the weekend brooding.

Without a word, she stood up, her expression fierce and resolute. She grabbed the SS from its charger and pulled it out of the wall. Its removal seemed to cause Vaati anxiety and he began to protest, but he quieted when she immediately plugged the device into the white headgear for Asphodel. Zelda had an idea. It was a crazy idea, and maybe even dangerous. She wasn't sure if it would even _work_ , but she'd seen how Vaati had been able to access some of the different programs installed into the SS.

If her idea could somehow work, if there was even the smallest chance that her idea would work…

Vaati's light flared a bright red. "What did you do just now?" he asked sharply. Now that the SS was connected to Asphodel's network, a logon option appeared on the display. It was a picture of a white, lily-like flower with the game's name written hear the bottom of the icon.

"I know you want to be left alone right now, but I want to try something," Zelda said, brushing her long hair aside and pulling the headgear over her head. She laid back down on her bed, and made herself comfortable. "I'm not sure if this will work, but I want to show you something. I'm going to need you to try and access Asphodel's launch menu that should have come up just now. Can you do that?"

Vaati didn't respond. However, his lack of refusal suggested that he was at least considering her words. Zelda continued.

"I know you don't trust me, and I didn't treat you well. You don't want my help, and you're right, I can't understand the things you're telling me. But please," she pressed, "let me _try_."

Still no response. But again, no refusal. Perhaps her sincerity had reached him, even if only a little.

Zelda didn't wait for his response. This was a risk she was taking, since she had no idea how much control Vaati would have over the headgear. Frankly, it was a stupid thing for her to do, to give an angry Navi potential control over something that affected her own sensory input. But she wanted to try - no, she _needed_ to know if her idea could possibly _work_.

Hilda always did say that she was a bit reckless.

She reached over her head and flipped the manual initiation switch on the headgear. She felt her muscles relax and her vision fade to black, almost like she was being pulled into an abyss.

"I'll be waiting for you in Asphodel."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Sheik Harkinian. In this world he was Sheik Harkinian, a rogue who was at a loss on finding some way to connect with a soul in a machine.

Sheik had no idea what was going to happen. However, he knew that Navis interfaced with the player whenever they entered the game world, and he also knew that Navis received sensory feedback from the player as well. This had been implemented to make sure that Navis could alert players if there was anything they should be concerned about regarding their physical status (for instance, erratic heartrate would prompt the Navi to automatically log players out if their condition was severe enough. Detecting prolonged lack of sleep would also cause Navis to force players out of the game).

Given that Navis interfaced with the player, there was a possibility that Vaati would be able to see and feel the world as Sheik did. Maybe. It was worth a shot.

The blond rogue waited, sitting cross-legged in the field of Asphodel where he'd last logged out. The field was a haunting grey, the same color as the overcast sky, but there was beauty in its melancholy. According to the developers, the field was inspired by the mythical Asphodel Meadow, a place where ordinary souls were said to wander after they died. While the source of its inspiration painted a dismal picture, the main quest of the game was to find a way to bring life to its ashen landscape.

To find hope with one's own hands.

Ten minutes passed, and Sheik neither saw nor heard any sign of the Navi. However, he was stubborn and determined, and he continued to sit in the field, waiting. His black cloak faded in with the ghostly flowers, and he was like a shadow that melted into the landscape.

He would wait. He'd told Vaati he would wait for him, and so that was what he was going to do.

Fifteen minutes.

A notification popped up in the corner of his vision. It was an alert that he had joined a party with another player. Sheik's eyes narrowed, confused by the message. _What in Farore…_

He accessed the party status. His breath caught in his throat when he saw the name.

And just as he saw the name, he saw a player walk into view. They were wearing impossibly high level gear; a gilded, dark purple, hooded sorcerer's robe with gold embroidery accented with red gems. They were equipped with a legendary small sword that hung from their hip, and Sheik could also see some high level tomes hidden beneath their robe as well. It was frankly intimidating.

_Name: Vaati. Male Hylian._

_Rank: Reincarnated Wrath_

The rank title… it wasn't even a title that existed in the game…

The player stopped several paces away from him. Their hands reached up to their face, and they pulled their hood down away from their face. Light lavender hair flowed over their shoulders, and the wind played with the strands as it passed between them. A crescent black mark was painted on their pale face, just below an intense, ruby gaze.

Sheik stood up to meet them. He squared his shoulders, meeting them face to face for the first time.

"Hello, Vaati," he said, a small smile on his face, "it's good to finally meet you."


	5. The Sorceress of Fifth Avenue

Sheik had expected that Vaati might be able to talk to him while in the game, and experience the world as he did, but he _never_ expected _this_. Vaati was a player. A Navi was logged into Asphodel as a _player character_. It further reinforced the idea that Vaati wasn't really a Navi, but a living person in every sense of the word.

Vaati frowned, and he looked around at the grey landscape of the field they were standing in. He appeared somewhat dazed, struck with the awe experienced by many first-time users of virtual reality gaming. However, Sheik knew that it was so much more than that for Vaati, based on the things he'd been telling him regarding his imprisonment. At the same time, there was a cynicism in the angle of Vaati's brow: resentment that had festered so long made him cautious of being hopeful. "This is…" he trailed off. His voice was less electronic, airier and wispy, but with an aged timber of someone who'd seen kingdoms rise and fall.

"This world is called Asphodel. Our current location is the Fields of Asphodel, in the kingdom of Avalon," Sheik explained.

Much like how he'd been as an SS Navi, Vaati made no indication of acknowledging Sheik. Instead, the sorcerer reached for the one-handed sword by his hip. He unsheathed it, holding the weapon out in front of him. On Sheik's menu, he could see the name of the blade: Sword of the Ruined King. It was listed as a unique item for class specification Reincarnated Wrath. Which meant… only Vaati could use it.

"How did you get that?" Sheik asked. It wasn't just the sword, Vaati's entire character profile was absurd. By now, however, Sheik knew to expect nothing when it came to Vaati.

For once, the sorcerer addressed Sheik, though he barely offered the other a glance. "I followed your instructions, and woke up like this," he said dismissively. He seemed to be looking at his own reflection in the silver of the weapon, and he placed a hand on the blade. "I can see my face again," he murmured, more to himself than to Sheik.

The blond rogue continued to talk while Vaati took his free hand and summoned a fireball. "Vaati, I'm sorry for what I did to you earlier. I'm sorry for the way I treated you."

Vaati ignored the apology. He instead experimentally tossed the fireball to an empty space in the field. It exploded, expanding into a nova that instantly burned the asphodel flowers. Petals glowed white red and swirled into the air. The field erupted into fire, and when Vaati closed his fist, the flames instantly went out, leaving behind an empty circle of black ash. It was an incredibly impressive, high level spell.

"You… you were a real person before all of this, weren't you? Your avatar," Sheik waved a hand at the sorcerer, "That's… that's _you_ , isn't it?"

Vaati raised his hand high in the air this time, and he muttered a spell under his breath. Energy crackled between his fingertips, and the clouds above began to swirl. A storm began to brew, and lightning snaked as the wind picked up. Then, Vaati threw his hand in a downward arc, and there was a quaking ' _crack'_ as lightning split the sky and thunder roared. Sheik could feel the electricity in the air even as the storm quickly subsided.

"This feels familiar," Vaati mumbled to himself, flexing his fingers and studying them casually, "and yet…"

Before Sheik knew what was going on, Vaati had closed the distance between them with two strides. The sorcerer reached out with his hand, gently placing it on the rogue's cheek.

 _Huh?_ Sheik blinked. It was a strangely personal gesture, especially coming from someone who'd barely acknowledged him in conversation. He stood frozen while a thumb carefully traced his jowls, running down along his lower jaw, and then stopping at his lower lip. Sheik held his breath, and he could still feel the soft brush of Vaati's thumb through the thin mask that covered his lower face. The two were close… surprisingly close. A part of him wanted to back away but another found himself rooted in place, paralyzed by the palm that cradled his face.

 _He's… not just a Navi,_ Sheik thought, his red eyes softening.

Vaati watched him intently, like he was memorizing his features through touch. Fascinated, perhaps, by the texture his fingers could finally feel. Then, the sorcerer's eyes suddenly narrowed, and it was too late when Sheik saw the dangerous glint flash across Vaati's face.

It was like a swift punch in the gut.

"None of this is real, is it," Vaati said coldly. He pulled out the sword that was impaled through Sheik's stomach, and turned away as the blond fell to the ground with a thud. A message appeared for both players: 'Sheik has been **slain** by Vaati.'

There was a confused silence. It was followed by a cough, and Sheik's somewhat exasperated voice came through the party voice chat while Vaati turned around and lost interest in the rogue's body. "No, it's not real, but it simulates it well. Except pain, thankfully. By the way… would you have done that if this _was_ real?"

Vaati didn't answer, instead giving a short snort to which there were several different interpretations. While Sheik had thought that Vaati might leave without him after that stunt, the sorcerer instead remained standing in place, looking out at the landscape with a bored expression. The revive counter above Sheik's name in the party hit zero, and the rogue respawned, thankfully not too far since they hadn't moved much from his last save point.

Before Sheik could get in a single word, Vaati immediately lifted a hand and roasted him with a scorching ray. The sorcerer's damage output was honestly unfair, and Sheik dropped to the ground instantly.

'Sheik has been **slain** by Vaati.'

"…"

Vaati brushed some wrinkles out of his robes, and then went back to staring at the fields he'd destroyed a few minutes ago. The flowers were gradually growing out of the ashes again, to replace the ones that had been burned.

Sheik respawned twenty seconds later.

Vaati brandished his sword.

'Sheik has been **slain** by Vaati.'

There was a growing pile of bodies; normally, bodies disappeared after about ten minutes to allow players a chance to pick up their gear (or give other players an opportunity to loot the bodies), but few players died so quickly in succession, and in the same location over and over again. There were three dead bodies of the same blonde rogue sprawled near Vaati's feet.

"… I suppose I deserve this," Sheik muttered through the party chat.

This time, the smallest hint of a smile replaced the scornful frown that had been on Vaati's lips. His back was to Sheik when the blonde respawned, but where he hadn't acknowledged Sheik before, the sorcerer finally turned his head over his shoulder. He didn't say a word, but his smile remained.

Sheik eyed the sorcerer warily, wondering how many more times Vaati was going to kill him. This time, however, Vaati didn't attack immediately, and instead pointed his sword at him. He tilted his chin towards the rogue, and uttered a single word. "Fight."

Sheik already knew that there was absolutely no way he could win against Vaati. Sheik knew that Vaati knew this, too. It was a pointless fight for Sheik, and a smart man would have walked away. Sheik was a smart man.

But he also disliked leaving a challenge unanswered.

He straightened his back, and looked at the smirking sorcerer coolly. He wasn't as _geared_ as Vaati was (Vaati's equipment was ridiculous), but Sheik liked to think he had skill. He was quick. His reflexes were phenomenal. He wouldn't win against the sorcerer through brute force, but he wasn't going to die instantly like the last few times. With much deliberation, he summoned a bow from his inventory.

They stared each other down for a few seconds. And then there was an explosion of movement.

With blinding speed, Sheik suddenly fired an arrow. Midair, the arrow split into four for a Flurry Shot. While Vaati lazily parried the projectiles away, Sheik dashed forward, closing the distance. He'd replaced his bow to dual wield two dirks.

Metal ringed in the clear air as blades clashed. With every strike, Sheik looked for an opening, but Vaati was frustratingly good at deflecting every blow, and he barely seemed to be trying. Sheik didn't normally get irritated from losing a fight, but the way Vaati was clearly _toying_ with him was grating on his nerves. And then, before he knew it, there was sweat running down his nose. His heartbeat raced. His breath quickened.

In this world that wasn't real, he was very much alive.

Sheik reached under his cloak and snapped a smoke bomb from one of his belts. It hit the ground, covering the area with blinding smoke. While Vaati remained disoriented, he quickly teleported behind the sorcerer and -

_Sching!_

The dagger that had been about to bury itself into Vaati's back was sent flying into the air. Then, Vaati quickly raised the sword he'd used to deflect the first dagger, and whipped it across to make contact with Sheik's second one. With a swift twist he sent it flying as well. He shot out his free hand, summoning a gust of wind that knocked Sheik backwards, sending him skidding across the ground. The sorcerer casually walked over to the rogue and pointed his sword at his neck.

Sheik glared at him.

He rarely got salty, but today.

Today he was salty.

"Bastard," he spat. Whatever sympathy, whatever pity he might have harbored in his voice, was gone. His tone was very clear in that he wished Vaati would just go and fling himself into the canyons at Giant's Peak. Twice.

And then Vaati laughed.

It was an honest, sincere laugh. Free, and not faked in any way. It took Sheik by surprise, and the rogue found himself staring, eyes wide, down the length of the blade pointed at him. He continued to stare, puzzled, when Vaati sheathed his sword still chuckling about something. "None of this is real, except you I suppose…" he murmured. It was too difficult to tell, but a sharp ear might have said he'd sounded… fond, almost.

"What?" Sheik asked. Vaati had been speaking too low for him to hear. The sorcerer ignored his question and began to walk away.

He stopped after three paces. "You," he said, louder this time. "You know about this world, do you?"

Sheik slowly got up, brushing himself off. His brows were scrunched in confusion, and he nodded tentatively.

The sorcerer lifted his head up towards the mountains in the distance, his smile still lingering on his lips. "Accompany me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Later that night about fifty blocks away from the Nohansen residence, a meeting was taking place in the Nindoten company tower on Fifth Avenue. It wasn't just any meeting, however; there were only two people attending, and the hour it took place was odd, as it was the weekend and it was past work hours. They were holding the meeting at the company's executive office, a luxurious room that overlooked the cityscape from the eightieth floor. The lights remained off, and the room was dark save for the city lights that poured into the room.

One of the attendees was a man in his late forties, dressed in a nice suit but with an undershirt that was more casual, like a half-hearted attempt to be approachable. He had a strong, squared jaw, jutting out in a way that suggested he had a tendency to maintain a critical frown. His hair was dyed a flat, dark brown, in an effort to conceal the flecks of grey starting to speckle his head. Where he normally would have preferred to sit with his legs confidently taking up space like a man on a crowded bus, the man currently sat hunched, his shoulders curled over his wringing hands like he wanted to disappear. The man's name was Elliot Wilson. Elliot was sitting in a hard, uncomfortable black wooden chair, just five feet away from the door.

Across from Elliot Wilson was a woman in her thirties. She was sitting across from him in the tall-backed black chair of the company president. The chair was definitely not hers, but she _looked_ like she belonged in it. She'd rolled the chair all the way over to the door, and was blocking the way.

"Just look at what they said about me! I always suspected something like this, but to really see it in words…" She pointed at her own, white SS device. Her dark wavy curls bounced as she jabbed her finger at the device's display, and she uncrossed her legs, her heels burying into the rich carpet indignantly.

The smug voice of a different woman, dark and guileful, spoke from her SS. A Navi. "I know, Sonya darling," it cooed.

Sonya Driscoll drummed her fingers irritably along her arm. Her amber eyes flickered with anger in the darkened room. "Just… ugh! Listen to this: 'That sandskin keeps asking for a promotion. She does good work so it'll be a shame to let her go, but it's starting to get annoying.' And then another one: 'Johnson will be a good fit for the next Department Head. He's got a great image, and with Driscoll working closely under him the dynamic will be perfect.'" The woman threw her hands up into the air. "I cannot believe this. Actually," she frowned, "I _can_ believe this."

Across from her, Elliot cringed. "S-Sonya… I swear. I swear I wasn't - "

"Being racist?" Sonya snapped. "'Sandskin.' _That's_ not racist?"

"The c-company n-needs a strong leader. S-someone with a good image and you're-"

"A half-gerudo woman, I _get it_."

"That's not what I was going to say!" the man protested, raising his voice. He was about to stand up, but Sonya's fierce snarl forced him back down. Instead, he mumbled. "You're a little young to lead the company, too. We need someone with experience. You don't have it."

"Oh, because _Johnson_ who has _four years less experience than I do_ is _clearly_ more experienced than I am! I know exactly what's going on here, Elliot, and _so do you so cut the bullshit_."

Elliot waved a hand at her disdainfully. "I still don't know how you managed to get those messages."

"Sonya honey, why do you let this maggot drivel on?" The SS sighed.

The Navi's voice caused Elliot to stiffen in his seat, and his half-lidded eyes became wide in fear. He was afraid of Sonya's Navi. His brief dismissiveness vanished, and he once again became a stuttering, panic-stricken mess. "P-please. My career… don't make this public. I'll do anything!" he begged.

The woman looked down her nose at the man whimpering across from where she sat. There was no warmth in her gaze, and she let the suffocating silence settle around his neck for several, long seconds. Then, she gave a steely smile.

"Veran."

At the name, her SS shook in her hands, and then transformed itself into a bracelet with a touchscreen. It snapped and whirred as it compacted into a smaller design. The bracelet model was popular with runners, who used it to monitor heart rate and running distance. _This_ bracelet's purpose, however, was not for running.

It latched onto Sonya's wrist like a spider lunging at its prey. Its display blinked after it wrapped itself tightly around her wrist.

Sonya continued to keep her gaze on the cowering Elliot, unperturbed. "Can I ask for your help?"

Nothing happened at first. Then, a dark shadow seeped from the SS around Sonya's wrist, and tendrils began to wrap up her arm, and then up her neck. The darkness completely consumed the woman, and for a moment it almost looked like a shadowy demon hovered over her shoulders. Then, the darkness dissipated.

When Sonya opened her eyes again, her eyes had _changed_. Rather than the deep amber characteristic of gerudos, her eyes were now red.

She gave a sinister laugh, and though her voice was still the same, there was something… unnatural about it. This was no longer Sonya speaking. It was the voice of the Navi from her SS.

Veran.

"You're a sweetheart for asking so nicely," she grinned.

She stood up from her seat and strolled over to where Elliot was. The man had his back pressed as far back as it would go where he sat, and his eyes swam as he looked up at the possessed Sonya in fear. The woman reached over and tilted his chin with a delicate finger. "No matter how many years go by, the pigs stay pigs, it seems. They drag their noses by my feet," she purred. Hidden malice lingered on her smile. "I won't hurt you, little pig. I am a gentle woman," a laugh, "I just need you to do one thing for me and I'll let you go. Forever."

She leaned forward, then, bringing her lips by his ear. She whispered some words while placing a hand on the back of his neck, and then Elliot's expression suddenly became blank. Dull. Then, Veran pulled away and stepped aside, allowing the man to stagger to his feet in a daze. The sorceress watched him with a contemptuous sneer as he dragged himself out the door.

She snorted when the door shut, leaving her alone in the darkened room. "I wasn't sure if I liked you at first, but I have to say," she glanced at her own reflection in the tall glass, a catlike smile on her face, "I'm rather fond of women who aren't afraid of stepping on a few toes."

Sonya's eyes flickered briefly back to her natural yellow. "I'm only taking out the trash."

"And I _adore_ how you think! I am pleased that I didn't have to possess you indefinitely. I much prefer this arrangement."

There was a faint buzz, and the SS on her wrist released its hold, returning back to its portable mode. The display blinked a few times, indicating Veran was back with the device and was no longer possessing Sonya. The woman walked over to the tall windows and looked outside at the city. The sky was dark, but the night was lit with the city's glowing skyscrapers. "I need to take care of two others," she murmured, "Then-"

"Company President," Veran chimed in from the SS. "Your aspirations are rather low, but I suppose we can slowly work our way to bigger things."

Sonya watched the weekend scramble below, listening to the muffled honks far below her feet. The rest of the city was oblivious that there was a sorceress among them, watching them go about their lives from the throne she planned to steal over the course of the next few weeks. Or days, even. No, she wasn't going to steal it; this was something she _deserved_. She was only taking back what was rightfully hers using the power of the Navi that had fallen into her possession just a few days ago. And Veran… she was powerful. She'd showed her that magic was _real_ , and together the two of them had figured out how to unleash Veran's power through her.

There was movement on the rooftop of the building across from where she stood. She shifted her weight, making herself comfortable as she watched Elliot Wilson stumble into view. He didn't seem all there, still under the effect of Veran's spell.

"Hmm, on second thought," Veran spoke again, just as Elliot leaned over the edge of the building.

Sonya watched the man on the other side, her gaze cold and apathetic. He swayed, and then he looked up at the starless sky before he plummeted to his death. They would later say it was suicide.

"The view from here isn't bad at all."


	6. A Different Side

Vaati. Vaati.

A quiet individual who kept to himself, but someone who looked like he had plenty to say. Sometimes Zelda thought this silent character wasn't who he'd always been, because there were times his face would light up like he wanted to say something before it twisted into brooding resentment - almost like he found words to be a waste of time, now. She'd seen it, when he passed by Lake Hylandia, or when they'd taken a detour by the Forgotten Forest - a flash of nostalgia and a few words about a place he'd once been, before he trailed off like he'd remembered that he didn't want to talk. His musings always suggested that he hailed from a place that had been lush with nature like the world of Asphodel.

Vaati.

An incredibly proud and independent man who had a natural inclination to lead, rather than follow. He exuded confidence in the way he carried himself, but at the same time, there was a battered atmosphere surrounding him. A once proud, wild wolf, domesticated. But you can't beat the wild out of something that had been free, and there was a fire in his eyes. He was beaten and subdued, but he still had fangs.

_Still a mystery._

"So, what's their name?"

"Huh?"

Zelda looked up from where she'd been typing a message on her SS. It was about three in the afternoon on Tuesday, and the students were pouring out of the buildings surrounding the green quad now that class was over. She was walking back home with Hilda, and the other girl was peering at her from beneath her dark bangs.

"You know," Hilda chewed on her lip with the hint of a smirk, "The weekend just happened. Zelda Nohansen, serious notetaker, is sending messages to someone all lecture long with a dreamy look on her face. Not that hard to put two and two together."

"I was _not_ dreamy!" Zelda cried, reflexively bringing her SS closer to her chest so that Hilda wouldn't be able to snoop what she'd been writing. It hadn't been anything embarrassing, not at all, but she could feel her cheeks redden just a bit. She hoped she could play it off as the autumn weather nip that touched her cheeks. She looked at Hilda flatly when the other girl just smiled and nodded knowingly.

The truth _was_ that she was sending messages, but not using any kind of messaging platform: it was a simple text file. The text file, however, could be read by Vaati, and it was just like sending him a message. She'd hoped that it would help fill him in on things that were happening outside that he couldn't see. After all, it would look a little strange (and suspicious) if she turned her SS display away from her to show Vaati their surroundings, but he'd wanted to know what was going on. Well, at least that's what she'd assumed. He still didn't really talk much to her directly, but she thought, if she was someone trapped in a small machine…

Wouldn't she want to see more than some person's face or the darkness inside a bag the whole day?

It was a little difficult to tell what he thought of it, but she was getting better at reading his tells; in general, even if he didn't say anything, if a blue light blinked she understood it as a casual nod. As long as it didn't blink red, he was interested in what she had to say, or was at least listening, rather than outright ignoring her. She had a feeling Vaati appreciated her messages during times when she wasn't able to speak (such as during eighty-minute long lectures), especially since from time to time he messaged back. Typical to how he was to when she first 'met' him, Vaati wasn't exactly a good conversationalist (either mentioning something that only tangentially related to the current topic, or falling into quiet thought only to continue the conversation fifteen minutes later), but… something had changed. Unlike before, he acknowledged her presence, sometimes actually involving her in conversation with direct questions rather than rhetorical musings.

Meeting in Asphodel, forcing her to react with pure uninhibited emotion, to break the boundaries of having her perceive him as a 'Navi' but rather a real _person_ who she could get angry with -

and no, not angry in the sense of being frustrated about communicating with him, but angry in the sense that she was annoyed by _him_ , as a _person_ -

Something had changed after she'd called him a bastard. There was a crack in the wall that separated them.

Zelda stifled a yawn, and then glanced down where she'd been in the middle of writing a note to Vaati. She noticed an addition to what she'd written, a single word that could only have been written by the eavesdropping sorcerer: _dreamy_.

She suppressed the urge to throw the device into a nearby trashcan.

But, that was another thing that had changed: occasionally she would have rare glimpses of a personality beyond one of a tortured individual, trapped in his own thoughts. A personality that also went beyond the composed, almost regal one. And that personality, she was slowly discovering, was a bratty, teasing, snarky one with a lot of attitude.

This time, she failed to suppress a yawn, and Hilda caught it.

"Stayed up late pining?"

Hilda didn't deserve an answer for that. Zelda rolled her eyes, while Hilda giggled.

She hadn't been _pining_. Goddesses. It was true that she hadn't gotten much sleep since Saturday, however. Hours and hours of diving into Asphodel had ruined her sleep schedule before she knew it, and while it had been fun at the time -

_I really regret 3AM._

It had been all too easy to get lost in the game, and it wasn't as though she could just leave it. Vaati couldn't be in Asphodel without her logged in as well, and she couldn't take away the world that was the closest thing to life for -

She stopped herself from the train of excuses. Vaati had never once forced her to play the game - she'd simply found herself drawn to it, again and again. Using him as an excuse was unfair. The fact was that… it had been exciting. Addicting. She'd gotten caught up in that excited rush of meeting someone new and trying to find out more about them. With every small piece she gathered of the sorcerer's character, she found herself wanting to know more. The beaten yet proud, the regal yet youthful; what was his story that built each facet she'd glimpsed of his nature? He had charisma that sucked you in, made you keep your eyes on him.

He still hadn't told her anything about who he was or where he'd come from, about family or friends, but the mystery of it all kept drawing her back for more.

_You're infatuated._

She shoved _that_ little voice all the way to the back of her thoughts.

"Haha! I'm just teasing."

Hilda's voice thankfully brought her back from that stressful line of thought. "So you got your SS fixed?" Hilda asked, pointing at the device in Zelda's hand.

Zelda shut down the messaging pad she'd been using earlier more hurriedly than she'd intended. Even though she'd closed it, the taunting, smug word 'dreamy' still echoed unfortunately in her head. She glanced at the SS, biting her lip as she wondered just how much of her story she should tell her best friend. Then, realizing that it would be too difficult to continue hiding Vaati especially since Hilda also played Asphodel, Zelda decided to tell her everything. She gave Vaati the opportunity several times to jump in on the conversation, but he maintained his silence, instead appearing to listen in with interest. Near the end of her story, Zelda was becoming self-conscious from her SS's attentive blue glow, and she was glad when she finished. She nearly sighed in relief when the light blinked twice, a satisfied huff; it was always going to be awkward talking about someone when they were right there with you, listening.

"So _he's_ the dreamboat, isn't he?" Hilda squealed.

… and it was always going to be _especially_ awkward when there was also a friend who seemed perfectly content embarrassing you in front of them.

Zelda looked at Hilda flatly, while the other girl laughed, tossing her wavy black hair over her shoulder playfully. "I'm just teasing," she repeated with a grin. Then, she continued, curious, "So does he talk? Clearly you two made up since last week. I haven't heard him talk at all, and now I really want to know what he's like! I wonder who programmed him, though?"

Zelda glanced back down at the SS in her hand. The light flickered orange. "Well," she began a little uncomfortably. It wasn't Hilda's fault that she was talking past Vaati even though he was perfectly capable of responding himself: to be honest, it had taken Zelda a while not to treat him like a simple Navi as well. Hilda hadn't even heard him talk once, so it was understandable that she would have an even harder time comprehending that he was just as nuanced as any other person. Still…

"Ohh! I also _just_ finished my chemistry exam, so I'm all free to play Asphodel again. Do you think I could meet him?"

Orange to red. Vaati was very clearly annoyed, now, but he still refused to say anything. Zelda wasn't sure if silence or ranting was the better option.

This wasn't going very well.

"Hilda I think," Zelda grimaced, "I think you should maybe ask him yourself." She already had a feeling she knew what Vaati's response, or rather lack of response, was going to be.

Hilda's eyes widened, and she stared at Zelda in surprise for a few seconds. Then, she seemed to get it, and she nodded to herself while mouthing 'right,' in agreement. An eyebrow was slightly raised as Hilda looked at the SS in Zelda's hands with some discomfort and confusion on how to address it. Then, she asked hesitantly, "So, Vaati. You're there, right?" she glanced at Zelda uncertainly, and then went on when the blonde gave her a confirmatory nod to keep going, "Mind if I join you and Zel sometime?"

The red light flickered before it turned back to orange. However, it remained orange, and Vaati ignored her. Zelda understood it as "I am annoyed and I am going to continue ignoring you." This time, Hilda seemed to understand how to interpret the light messages as well.

"He's annoyed, isn't he?" She asked Zelda. Then, she corrected herself, and with some irritation of her own repeated at the SS, "You're annoyed, aren't you?" She turned back to Zelda. "Well, tell him that I don't appreciate him passive aggressively ignoring me. And tell him the three of us are going to see each other in Asphodel whether he likes it or not, because I am not going to make my best friend choose who to hang out with. Also tell him I'm sorry for offending him as I apparently have."

"Er," Zelda hesitated.

"And I am _not_ going to tell him all of that myself this time, because if he's ignoring me then _I'm_ going to ignore him," Hilda crossed her arms over her chest with a huff. She grinned, winking at Zelda who was still looking a bit awkward, and then she stuck her tongue out at the silent Navi.

Did she imagine it? Zelda thought she saw, for a fraction of a second, the light flash yellow before turning back to irritable orange. It was almost like… a scoff. An amused snort, before he went back to scowling.

Maybe they would get along after all.

Although… they would have to figure out how to play the game in a way that was enjoyable for everyone. Hilda and Vaati had very different ideas on how to navigate Asphodel: Hilda cared mostly for raiding dungeons and collecting the rarest treasure from boss drops, and she was also terribly impatient. Meanwhile Vaati -

Vaati had a very unique way of 'playing' Asphodel. He wasn't interested at all in running through dungeons or trying to find and fight the game's most powerful bosses; no, he was more interested in just walking through Asphodel's expansive world. There were abilities that allowed teleportation, but he refused to use it, instead opting to trek to places of interest on foot. He never explained to Zelda why he preferred the long (and rather arduous) walk when they could warp somewhere instantly, and he was mostly lost in his own thoughts while they traveled. From time to time he would say something, and Zelda wasn't always sure if he was talking to himself again, or was speaking to her.

One memory in particular stuck in her mind, and that was during a session on Sunday, after she'd started getting used to knowing how to interact with the sorcerer. After about three (or had it been four?) hours, they'd made it to a dungeon about three quarters up one of the taller mountains surrounding the kingdom of Avalon. Vaati led them through the edge of the dungeon, avoiding most fights, until they reached a dead end. It was an alcove alongside the mountain that overlooked the imaginary kingdom and the field of white-grey asphodel that made up most of its southern side. There was no objective to be found at this dead end, and though there had been a few players tackling the Skyhold dungeon, no one ever bothered to visit the alcove that Vaati had taken an interest in. He wandered towards the edge of the alcove, and then sat down, his feet dangling over the miles long fall below.

He sat there for an hour, looking at the landscape.

She'd joined him as well, trying to figure out what it was that he was seeing. She noticed how he tapped his finger listlessly against the cold stone of the alcove, or allowed the thin layer of snow near where they sat to melt at his touch, only to look at his reddening hands with a frown on his face. At some point he pulled out a white feather, a common drop item called White Down, running his fingers through it as he looked at dusk beginning to fall in the world of Asphodel.

He'd tilted his head slightly, and murmured thoughtfully to himself just barely above a whisper. "Memory becomes blurred. The more I observe this landscape the more I forget what the world truly looked like. Or maybe I don't even remember it any more, only holding on to the idea that I still know what it was like."

He'd trailed off, then, before he suddenly passed the feather he'd been stroking to her.

"How familiar is this feather to you," he'd asked as she took it from his hands, "how closely does its softness mimic reality?"

Zelda had been struck by the question. Until he'd asked her, she'd always thought, somewhat indifferently, that Asphodel's virtual reality was 'real enough.' It emulated real life where it mattered, and some people would argue that it was as close to real as it could get. However, there was always going to be something to it that wasn't quite the same. The textures here were always a little too perfect, too even, too _right_. It was missing the variations, the small subtle imperfections of real life, and it was missing it enough to be vaguely noticeable to the observant individual. The tragedy behind the question was not lost on her.

The question still haunted her.

"Well, see you two later. I'm going left here," Hilda said once they'd reached the end of the block that led out to one of the main avenues running alongside the university campus. She waved at them both. "Let me know if you're logging on tonight!"

Zelda nodded, her smile still a little weak from the memory of Vaati's question, and she waved back. "See you!" With that, they parted, and Zelda trudged back home. The silver skyscrapers reflected a warm gold from the afternoon sun, and car horns blared at pedestrians crossing the street at careless times. The city's public SpeedRail roared overhead on raised tracks that carried the state-of-the-art zero friction magnetic train throughout the city's key locations. Zelda wondered if Vaati was familiar with a city-scape such as Hyrule, and found herself thinking about how she should show it to him one day. She held out her SS in front of her like she was messaging someone while walking down the street - she couldn't in good conscience put the device in her bag anymore. At the same time, she didn't look at it too long, for it felt too much like she was staring at someone. From time to time, she wrote down a small note about the street they were on; she wasn't sure if it made any sense to him, but she hoped it could at least keep him involved in this world, somehow.

When she reached the high-rise apartment where she lived with her father, she looked at her SS to access her electronic key that would open the elevator doors. She found herself smiling when she noticed that a GPS map had been opened at some point during the walk home.

Vaati was slowly getting a better handle on the programs available on her SS.

"Following along?" she asked, laughing lightly. There was a blink of blue, like a half-hearted shrug in response. She scanned her SS on the elevator access pad, and then rode the elevator to the upper floors where her apartment was.

She had a lot of homework and studying to catch up on, especially since she had an exam this week. Zelda knew she needed to study, but rather than open her lecture notes, Zelda immediately made herself comfortable in front of her desk and started browsing stores online. This took precedence over all of her school work.

Vaati seemed preoccupied with something he was doing on his own in the background, but she caught a curious blink of blue when she started perusing an online shopping website. The activity tab at the bottom of the screen slowed, and eventually everything cleared except the page she was using. Vaati was following along at what she was looking at, curious.

A few minutes later, she heard his voice from the SS. "You can access vendors from here?" he asked. His voice betrayed his curiosity, but at the same time it was still guarded. While Vaati had become more open to the idea of her after their explorations in Asphodel, it hadn't escaped Zelda's notice how he still maintained a firm, cautionary distance between the two of them. Sometimes she couldn't shake the feeling that he was perhaps conflicted, like he appreciated her company on some level, but for whatever personal reason couldn't allow himself to admit that. Zelda didn't let it bother her, however. She understood well enough that Vaati had a lot of issues he needed to sort out himself. It wasn't personal.

"Online shopping. It's really convenient!" she replied, happy that he was talking to her. She mulled over some customer reviews. "I hope you don't mind, but… on our walk home, I decided I wanted to buy something for you."

"Video cameras?" He seemed to read through the pages of various portable cameras that Zelda was looking at. Then, the light turned a thoughtful yellow, and there was a brief flicker on the display screen as Vaati opened a separate tab in the background. Zelda noticed that they were wiki pages that described what video cameras were. Vaati really was getting good at navigating searches now.

Zelda flipped back and forth between two cameras that were within her budget. She read the reviews and compared the prices, and then finally added one of them to her cart. "These are wireless cameras that I can hook to my ear or clip anywhere I want. Most people use them to take action videos," she explained. The camera she'd picked out was slightly more expensive than what she'd initially planned for, but it was also smaller than the cheaper option at just two inches in length. Her account was going to hurt, but she wholeheartedly believed that it would be worth it in the long run.

Sure it was something of an impulse buy, but it was a _good_ impulse buy.

"With these wireless cameras, I think you should be able to see what I'm seeing outside. I thought that it would, well," she scratched her chin, a little embarrassed, "that it would be better than having to stare my face all the time."

Vaati didn't say anything for some time. The light stopped its usual, slow, 'breath-like' blinking, instead freezing on light blue. It was almost like he was genuinely surprised. Stunned.

The light flickered after a few seconds, and with a hesitant pause, he answered quietly, "I do not mind it."

"Huh?"

A blush was creeping along her neck, up her cheeks, and to the very tip of her pointed ears. No. _No_ she was overthinking things, _clearly_ , and -

and she must have misheard. He didn't mean it _that_ way and -

_What way?_

And now Zelda was definitely, definitely red.

"There are far worse things to stare at," Vaati reiterated, a bit louder this time, obviously noting the red tint on Zelda's blushing face. There was a playful smugness to his tone, another, rare glimpse into the personality he'd had before he'd been repeatedly beaten. This time it was Zelda's turn to be caught off guard, and she might have been flustered if she hadn't been so surprised by his sudden change of tone. He almost sounded… younger.

The moment vanished when the light flickered yellow, twice, and an audible huff accompanied it. For a second it seemed like Vaati was going to retreat back to his own, digital corner again, but then he spoke. It was hesitant, and maybe even a little graceless and unnatural. "But… thank you," he said awkwardly, like he wasn't much used to thanking people without being sarcastic about it.

Zelda blinked, staring at the SS in her hand. The corners of her eyes softened, and she returned a small smile. She didn't say anything and only nodded, and though she couldn't see his face, she had a feeling he'd seen her. The caution Vaati had kept, the guarded distance he'd maintained up until now; it was starting to disappear. Not completely, not yet, but he was beginning to be willing to make an effort to look at her. To acknowledge that she was _there_ and was on his side.

"I also learned the meaning of 'dreamboat' earlier as well, after a quick search."

Zelda blinked again. _Hm?_

The mischievous tone returned to Vaati's voice, and Zelda could practically hear him smirking. "Is that what I am?"

"I… what? _!_ " Zelda exclaimed, suddenly very very _very_ alert. "You shouldn't listen to what Hilda says."

"Oh, I am aware. I want _your_ opinion." Zelda could just imagine him tapping his chin, if he had one to tap, "Dreamy, right?" he quoted Hilda's phrase from earlier.

"I don't remember you being so cheeky before, Vaati."

He chuckled, free and youthful, a striking contrast to the reserved, cynical character he normally carried. Zelda shook her head exasperatedly, but she couldn't help but return a smile of her own. For the rest of the night after, he left her alone, allowing her to catch up on the rest of her schoolwork. Though he remained quiet, Zelda knew that it was a different kind of quiet than the one that he'd harbored before. Another piece of the wall between them had cracked. One day, maybe she could reach him.

It was eleven at night by the time Zelda finished the last of her short essays for the Sheikah unit, and hammered down some problem sets for her statistics course. Exhausted, she dragged herself to shower (this time being careful not to fling her clothes off in her bedroom out of habit), and once clean, hopped into her bed. She made sure to plug Vaati's SS into the charger and was about to go to sleep when a pang of guilt struck her.

"Uh," she began, "Vaati I'm sorry, but-"

Vaati surprised her by anticipating her topic of concern. "We don't have to go to Asphodel today."

"Are you sure?" Zelda asked, rolling over on her bed to get a better look at the SS charging on the wall above her head.

"I'm busy," he said shortly.

 _Oh_.

Zelda wasn't sure if he was curt because he was disappointed, or if he really was busy with something. Feeling insecure that she'd done something wrong, Zelda was about to slide out of bed to hit the light switch to retire for the night. Before she could get up, however, the light turned itself off. In the dark, she looked over her shoulder to where the soft glow of the SS gave off a dim light to the room.

"… Thank you," she said, slightly taken aback.

There was a gruff grunt in response.

Zelda curled back under her bedsheets. _I guess he really is busy. I wonder what he's up to?_ she wondered, drifting slowly to sleep.

"Good night, Vaati."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It turned out that Vaati had, indeed, been busy before she'd retired last night. She woke up to Vaati telling her about a message from Hilda, and she should have been suspicious when he passed word along without his usual irritation.

"Well, what'd she say?" Zelda asked, running back and forth from her bedroom to her bathroom to get ready for the day.

"I'd rather you read it."

Once changed, Zelda ran back to the SS that she'd left on top of her bed. She picked it up, reading the message on the display screen:

**(Hilda): blushing candid beauty!** _**!** _ **!** _**!** _ **what a cutie!**

Zelda stared at the message for a few seconds, not entirely understanding its context or what had prompted her friend to send it to her. It seemed so random. Granted, it was an adorable message, but it was so unprompted…

And then she noticed, _finally_ noticed, her notification alerts. She clicked on one, and it led to her Instagram account. There, she noticed several dozen new pictures she'd never had any memory of ever taking. They were all selfies.

"So," she began, her tone flat and steely, "when you said you didn't _mind_ staring at my face all day and that you were busy last night…" she trailed off.

There were several choice shots of her blushing face, some from when she'd been talking to Hilda and some from last night while she'd been home, talking to Vaati. To be fair, Vaati had some great composition sense and had captured her best angles but still…

Two flickers. Blue. She could just see his Asphodel avatar with a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

She glanced back at the likes she'd accrued over the night on her new photos. She sent a weak, 'aww thanks' back to Hilda, and then grudgingly took one more look at the Instagram photos.

"Fine, these are pretty good," she admitted. Not to be conceited, but she almost looked like a model in some of the photos. "And you just _had_ to write in 'dreamy' on all of them, did you?"

"You never answered my question last night," Vaati drawled nonchalantly.

Despite herself, she laughed at his comment. She picked up her bag and made her way to the door. Something had changed. "Hah. Bastard," she grinned.


	7. Caph

(Helda): Vaati, won't you join us?

(Sheik): Come on Hil- I mean Helda, he'll be fine.

(Helda): It'll be more fun if we're together…

(Sheik): Vaati when you want to join us we'll be at-

_Muted group chat._

Eyes closed, Vaati took a deep breath, taking in the quiet that he was left with once he'd muted the group chat. And yet, it was not entirely quiet. The gurgle of water as the snow melted into hidden creeks, the crackle of some creature stepping on the thin layer of frost, the distant howl of the wind rushing through the mountains; he was kept company by the subtle orchestra once the abrasive voices, a little too loud for his liking, finally disappeared.

It was late afternoon according to the data from the SS. Zelda had returned home after the day's classes, and had logged on to Asphodel to meet in the game with Hilda. He'd had no choice but to join their session, and not being eager to be friendly with the newcomer, he'd flown away to where they couldn't follow.

His head tilted towards the sky, he watched the greys of the dull clouds blanketing the sky swirl into each other, and then he slowly leaned himself against the craggy rocks of the cliff he was standing on. His fingers touched snow, and he let them linger long enough for him to feel the sting of cold, mentally studying a sensation he hadn't experienced in, well…

 _Years_.

Asphodel. While it bothered him that there was something that wasn't entirely _real_ about it, it was the closest he'd been to experiencing life for the first time in ages. The geography of the world even seemed to emulate the Hyrule he'd once known, as though the ones who'd designed it had been inspired by the old tales.

Vaati snorted to himself at the thought. It was absurd to think man had found a way to finally create entire worlds; fake worlds, but worlds nonetheless. It was almost like they thought themselves gods, without the power of one.

The humor of it left as quickly as it had come, and Vaati's cynical sneer dipped. On the one hand, he was glad for having some kind of world beyond an endless abyss, where he could pretend to live. But that was all it was; pretend. It was a bitter consolation, and one that he couldn't help but imagine that whatever god up there would expect him to feel _grateful_. Grateful? The thought that someone, somewhere, figured that he ought to be thankful for a situation that was fractionally better than before only angered him.

In the distant fields below him, he watched the markers of the rest of his "party" wander towards a settlement a few miles to the west. Even if he looked away, he couldn't completely ignore the markers from his thoughts. It had a way of burrowing into his mind - a faint blue glow in the edge of his vision, an unnatural sensation that someone was standing behind him - small cues poked and prodded to remind him that he'd wandered too far from the rest of the group. He had some difficulty ignoring it at first, similar to how he'd been hounded by the dozens of stimuli from the SS device when he'd first regained consciousness, but he was becoming less twitchy about it by the hour.

Everything was loud. _Hilda_ was very loud. She was apparently Sheik's friend, and she seemed a little too eager to put herself in his space. At the very least, she'd learned to treat him less like a curiosity to be ogled, but when he'd heard that she would be joining Asphodel today he hadn't been keen on sticking around. He could have killed her like he'd done with Sheik, except he already knew that it wouldn't be a permanent solution, and when she inevitably came back it would most likely make her even louder.

If that were possible.

Sheik wasn't loud. And because of that, he almost didn't mind when the blond felt the need to force conversation on him. At first Vaati had figured Sheik was as artificial as the rest of Asphodel: an 'avatar' of the Zelda who lived beyond his digital prison. He'd imagined Sheik was Zelda playing pretend: another reminder that he had been given an imitation of life as some kind of sick consolation prize. Sheik irritated him at times, especially due to the fact that he was a constant reminder of the royals that had done him in, but… Vaati had learned that Sheik was real in his reactions, raw and passionate with fire behind those red eyes. And, despite everything, it was a realness that was reassuring.

Oddly enough, Vaati sometimes felt that Sheik was more real than Zelda; like Sheik was a presentation of Zelda that was honest and unafraid.

Briefly he wished he could have that sliver of reality with him, but the price of having the loud one come along as well wasn't worth it. Besides, thinking such things almost made him sound like he was eager for Sheik's company, but that was simply absurd. He put up with Sheik because he had been forced to _learn_ to put up with him. A cruel, infuriating situation to be quite honest.

The snow touching his fingers began to sting with the beginnings of frostbite. He kept his hands on the snow long enough until the sensation became uncomfortable, and then he brought his fingertips up to his face. His skin had turned red, though tinged with blue. Soon enough, however, the biting of the cold left his fingers until he couldn't recall its sensation.

He continued to study his fingers for some time, rubbing his thumb along them thoughtfully, and then something seemed to occur to him and he pushed himself away from the wall. He turned slowly around to face the face of the mountain, and then, with a faint frown, he hovered into the air with the wind swirling gently around his ankles.

At least with Hilda here, he could explore Asphodel on his own. It wasn't as though he needed an excuse to leave without Sheik, but he almost (and he hated the word) felt obligated to allow the blonde to accompany him. He both loathed and craved their company, no doubt a product of the confusion that came from having been alone for so long, and at least with Hilda he had an excuse for himself to leave. With Hilda, he could go off on his own while the other two did their own thing.

Vaati flew up over some of the steeper mountain crags, paths that were impossible to scale on foot. He'd been curious to see the limits of this world, and he suspected that, as vast as this world was, he would eventually come across a boundary that he could not pass. Indeed, he managed to find one: beyond the mountains where no normal 'player' could traverse, Vaati encountered what appeared to be such an edge. Here, the scenery suddenly blurred and lost detail, and the rocks beneath his feet disappeared into some kind of deep fog. The fog extended in an unnaturally straight line, cutting across the air like an impassable wall.

Intrigued, the sorcerer hovered closer to the fog. He was met with some resistance when he reached his hand towards it, but with some effort he managed to push through. He decided to keep going.

The air suddenly became thick, and there was a clamping sensation around his neck.

Suffocating.

Out of the corner of his eyes he could see the red 'health bar' blinking and growing shorter with every second he remained in the fog. There was a burning sensation in his lungs, which he calmly identified as something like pain. But it wasn't real pain, no. He knew real pain, and he knew what it was like to come close to dying. Compared to that, this sensation was dull, like an afterthought of the real thing.

His health continued to decrease. He considered it, not in any hurry to step back out of the fog and into safety. _Do I miss the pain?_ he wondered. It was simply another sensation to him, like the sting of the snow or the brush of wind; a feeling that had been missing while he'd been trapped within the void. The fact that he recognized this feeling to be artificial only filled him with morbid curiosity with what would happen if it were taken too far. He watched the health bar blink dangerously close to zero.

_I wonder what would happen should I die here._

_Is death as fictitious as the rest of this world?_

His throat burned. His health continued to drop.

30HP.

20.

10.

"This soul does not find this home satisfactory, I see."

The sudden, unexpected voice prompted Vaati to whirl around to see the speaker. As soon as he did so, he felt himself grabbed roughly by the wrist, and then flung out of the fog. His health remained at just a sliver left, and to reflect it he felt his body about to collapse from fatigue. Vaati lowered himself atop one of the mountain crags that he'd been floating over, and he narrowed his eyes at the figure who was watching him with a mischievous grin on their face. He rubbed his wrist where they had been grabbed: it hadn't hurt, but he was disgusted by the unwelcome touch.

The figure was ambiguously male with a youthful, boyish face. They hovered in the air, leaning towards him with their legs crossed and their chin resting on their hands as the bobbled their foot almost childishly. Their hair and eyes, however, hinted at aged experience, for the tousled strands were grayed and fine and the yellowed eyes were somewhat clouded.

That wasn't what was disconcerting about this individual, however. They didn't look like they belonged in Asphodel: their two legs were no longer of flesh but machine, plated with black and gold. Large chunks of their torso that peeked out from behind the heavy cloak that covered them also appeared to have robotic augmentations, and their entire right arm was also completely mechanical.

Vaati tensed, suddenly wishing he hadn't injured himself to the point where he was in danger of losing a fight. He hadn't felt threatened by anyone in this world until now - this person was something else. No one was supposed to be able to follow him here, for he'd been certain that none of the other players had the ability to fly like he did.

No player could follow, then -

"You're not a player," Vaati narrowed his eyes at the figure hovering over him, still bobbing their foot to an imaginary rhythm.

Their smile broadened slightly. "A god," they clarified.

Vaati maintained a passive expression, but his brows raised ever so slightly at their simple yet outrageous remark. Eventually, he scoffed, "Don't be ridiculous." His tone, however, betrayed his uncertainty.

"Says the one who called themselves god."

The temperature seemed to drop, then, and the wind whistled a warning as Vaati stared at the newcomer. This was the first time anyone had referenced his past.

_Truth, then?_

Menace began to take shape the longer he studied the other's knowing smile, for if there was one thing he despised more than the void, it was the so called gods. "You have something to do with this," he said quietly, words threatening like a sword unhurriedly unsheathed.

The god continued to bob their foot, grinning childishly while watching Vaati with fascination. "I brought you _back."_

"Back? _Back?_ " A thin-lipped sneer. The sorcerer didn't raise his voice, but the tremor lingering upon it was neither due to the cold nor fear. He clenched his fists, the knuckles going white. "Do you honestly think this is _living?_ "

He remembered who he'd been, all those years ago, filled with pride and accomplishment when he'd finally seized the Wishing Cap for himself. His ignorance of what he would face preserved the drunken glee of holding the power to change the world as he saw fit. He was a _god_ , the world was his. A snap of his fingers and the wind would obey his every whim. A passing thought would make men bow.

He'd been free.

It had lasted no longer than a few weeks before he'd been imprisoned, and from that time forth he'd been forced to endure a cruel cycle of repetition. Each time he'd been allowed to escape he would taste that freedom for no longer than a few months before he was restrained once again. Each time his cynicism and bitterness grew to the point where it wasn't pride in his powers he was filled with, but wrath. And now, this. He'd served his time, he deserved more than this mockery of life. "Let me out," he hissed venomously.

The response surprised him. "Oh, I intend to," the youth replied. Their grin widened when they noticed Vaati appear taken aback by the comment. "I have my own limitations, small steps first. By the time I succeed, you will be truly alive again: a body of your own, with the ability to feel. To _bleed_." They chuckled to themselves at this, and then they swung themselves over to have a sit on the rocks near Vaati in a show to be slightly less threatening.

Cautious, Vaati refused to take up their invitation to relax, remaining standing where he was. "Who are you," he demanded.

"You may address me as Caph. I am a god in the sphere of reincarnation, or at least, one of them." A flicker passed over their clouded eyes and their tone became less flippant, carrying leaden weight. The hint of their true age showed as their bobbing foot slowed, and the machinery in their legs whirred to a stop. "You have questions, no doubt," they observed, and when Vaati made no indication of denying the comment, they continued.

"You mortals are quickly working towards achieving creation of artificial life. AI. Sentient programs. You do this without a second thought to what this implies in the grand scheme of things, but it's a truly amazing feat if you succeed," Caph explained. Here, there was a hint of something close to envy, and Vaati finally noticed how the robotic augments, from the way they were wired with a somewhat novice quality, had most likely been made by Caph themselves. The envy was quickly obscured by an audible snort. "That got me thinking: do _I_ have to be so limited in what I can do, when mortals are on the cusp of achieving something close to what had previously only been within the power of gods? I have limitations on what I can achieve with reincarnation, for not even _I_ can bring back the dead even if I can grant them a new life. Souls often forget the lives they had before, when they are granted a chance to start again. However… what if I could displace them into a new body, but somehow allow them to retain their memories? That is almost like bringing back the dead." Amber swiveled towards Vaati. "That is where you come in."

"So I'm just a tool for you to play with." Though Vaati wasn't surprised to learn that he hadn't been brought back to consciousness out of charity from the gods, it was something of a relief to know for sure. At the same time, he was unsettled by the fact that the sole reason he'd earned this one's interest was because of some personal project. An experiment.

Caph smirked at Vaati who listened with disgust. "But we both benefit if I succeed. I get to sate my curiosity, you get another chance." Their smirk fell a little, then. "I cannot simply experiment with clean souls, however. If something went wrong, the gods who deal with shepherding the dead would undoubtedly come after me, and I would rather not get in conflict with them. _You_ , however," a nod, "The other gods wouldn't care if your soul was destroyed under my mistake. They left you to rot, forgotten, to spend an eternity not quite alive but not quite dead."

Vaati's ears twitched. 'Rot' was a good way to describe what he'd been left to. Frozen, unable to exert any change. Floating endlessly in a void, deprived of all senses. Alone, desperately holding on to sanity, thoughts slipping through his fingers and becoming less coherent with every tick of an unseen clock.

It was only through sheer spite and determination that he'd kept together, relatively speaking.

"If things don't go as planned and you die, or… worse…, no one would have an issue."

" _I_ would," the sorcerer interjected, his thoughts returning once more to the present.

"Come now, at least you have a chance at being yourself again with me."

For the first time since Caph had revealed themselves to him, Vaati paused to listen. His initial reaction to 'gods' defaulted to 'hostile,' usually, but this one seemed to be a… defector of sorts. Unlike what he thought of most gods, this one was acting for their own personal interests, and that was far more predictable than those who blathered on about illusions like the 'greater good' and 'justice.' However, he couldn't hide his apprehension. What reasonable motive could they possibly have for betraying their pantheon by setting the Wind Mage free? "And if you succeed and I go free, what then?" he asked. The unspoken follow-up was, "Would I be set free only for you to hunt me down again?"

Caph appeared to be prepared for the question. A single shoulder rose and fell in an offhand shrug. "My sphere of influence is reincarnation. My curiosity sated, I wouldn't report you to those who might have a… ah, stricter should we say, way of handling things. Surely you of all people can sympathize with wondering if something… _can_ be done?" they flashed a conspiratorial grin. "That is all I want. To see if I can overcome this challenge I have set upon myself."

When Vaati didn't grin back, the god gave another half-hearted shrug. "Unfortunately I cannot simply create a body for you. You are probably wondering why you were placed here, in this device, if my intention was to revive you with a true body. The best I could do was to have you matched with a, compatible vessel, I suppose you can call it."

It took a few seconds for Vaati to realize what Caph was getting at. Then, it hit him, and the wrath that had been sated began to resurface. His eyes took on a fierce fire, and his lips began to curl back into a snarl. "You aren't serious," he finally said.

Caph was talking about Zelda. The vessel they spoke of was Zelda. It wasn't that he was opposed to taking over bodies, changing his form, or resorting to possession. No, that wasn't it.

_Then what was it?_

Caph mirrored the question that had been whispered from a small voice in the corners of Vaati's consciousness. "I am," they replied simply, a thin brow raised slightly, surprised by Vaati's sudden anger. "You two aren't so different, Vaati, and you even chose them yourself. This Zelda is also in possession of the Triforce, something you've always tried to obtain. I'm practically giving you a gift wrapped present, Vaati."

And that was true. The sorcerer couldn't even deny that the god was wrong, and somehow this infuriated him more. If what Caph said was true, he would be back in the real world, albeit in a body that wasn't his own but that wasn't something he was unused to. On top of that, he would be in possession of a power that had alluded him for centuries, and this time it was simply being _given_ to him. His eyes bore through Caph, trying desperately to find some kind of catch, some pitfall that they were trying to get him to fall for. However, the god only returned the frank smile they'd had from the start, and Vaati could see no indication of deception.

_Then why did this suggestion disgust, no, anger him so?_

"All I need is your verbal permission. I cannot do this without it, as I am still bound to certain rules, which is why I am here today," Caph hummed, their foot bobbing playfully once more.

"And what," Vaati asked, voice low and barely containing a tremor of rage, "happens to the host if I agree?"

The air was deathly silent, the simulated winds stilling as though they, too, were afraid of incurring the wrath of the sky's lord. Caph's eyes flickered behind greying strands, gauging Vaati's reaction with interest. There was a long pause while the god seemed to weigh whether it was worth answering the sorcerer's question, before they finally replied, "They switch places with you."

"So they're trapped here," Vaati snapped immediately. _Like me, now._

"It's not like you of all people care about what happens to someone else," Caph sneered. Then, their sneer vanished. "Or do you?"

" _Leave_."

Caph returned a thin-lipped smile at the sorcerer who'd closed the distance between them and was now towering over the god menacingly. "Think on it, Vaati. I will give you some time to adjust to the idea." And with those words, the wind picked up once more and Caph vanished, melting into the swirl of snow. Vaati's fingers trembled, not from cold but from barely tamed rage.

_Think on it, Vaati._

"There is _nothing_ to think on," he spat into the air, and he ignored the jeers that seemed to haunt him through the wind, howling between the mountain's peaks.

No one else knew more than he did the weight of imprisonment.

_Think on it._

Only those who'd never experienced what he'd experienced would suggest such a thing so lightly.

_How far would you go to escape this centuries old curse?_

Ah. That was the question, wasn't it.

He was oh so tired.

And the wind was much too gentle here.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"So when's the boyfriend going to join us?"

Hilda waited five seconds, but when Sheik continued to fight through a patch of Deku Babas without so much as acknowledging her, she sighed. "No reaction, huh?" She casually sidestepped a projectile fired from one the plants and torched it with her staff. She chewed on her lip while she watched Sheik finish off the ravenous plants, and glanced over her shoulder from time to time in the direction where Vaati's location marker was.

"It got old after the second time, Hilda."

"I thought it was cute seeing you all flustered." She brightened, and then giggled at the embarrassed red that had crept up along Sheik's mask. "There it is!" she cried, while Sheik rolled his eyes and shook his head with a grumble. She stopped laughing when she noticed the rogue quickly turn to hide his face and make his way swiftly towards the deeper woods. "Oh, let's not go any further this way, actually…" she said as she caught up to him, gently stopping him with her hand.

The blonde cocked his head, puzzled. Hilda's expression had changed from playful to grave, and she was looking past the shadows cast by the thick trunks of the ancient woods with worry. "Maybe if we had Vaati here we could think about it, but…" she trailed off.

"I know you wanted to meet him, but I think he needs time. It sounded like he's been through a lot," Sheik supplied, but he could tell from Hilda's apprehension that this wasn't just her trying to convince him to follow her way. Her brows were furrowed, and she still hadn't let go of his wrist. The enchantress peered into the woods for a few more seconds.

"It's just," she started, her voice lowering to a hush. "Sheik, did you hear about the glitches that were showing up in the game recently?"

"I haven't read the game updates too carefully." He hadn't had much time to, especially with worrying over Vaati and, well, mostly worrying over Vaati. "Hilda, what's wrong?" It wasn't really like her to back out of a challenging new area or to forgo the possibility of shiny new loot.

Hilda's lips flattened into a frown, as though she were weighing her greed against her self-preservation. Then, with a final decision, she shook her head and pulled Sheik away from the woods. "It's mostly happening in high level areas, just past the Lost Woods, which is in that direction," she nodded towards the darker part of the woods they'd been walking towards. "Apparently some of the raid bosses have gone missing, and they wouldn't respawn even after Nindoten tried resetting them to fix the issue."

"Huh," Sheik grunted. Missing raid bosses was certainly odd, but a glitch like that wasn't something that would warrant Hilda to pass up an opportunity to hunt through a challenging area. Hilda continued, answering his thoughts.

"It's not that they're gone from the game, they don't respawn because they're _freeroaming_ now. Some players on the forums said that it's almost like they got a mind of their own."

Sheik snickered. "You've been reading too many creepypasta posts, Hilda."

"Nindoten confirmed it! And that's not the only thing," Hilda pouted. She twirled her staff and set fire to another Deku Baba that Sheik had missed earlier. "There's some talk about a weird NPC that isn't… isn't normal. They're unnamed, and you can't see any of their stats, no health bar or anything. The worst part is that some players challenged them and died instantly. Couldn't respawn, and their account reset."

"Reset as in…"

"It's like their characters actually _died_ , Sheik. Gone." Hilda waved her hands in emphasis. Then, she took a deep breath. "Nindoten is currently looking into it and has asked all players to stay away from the buggy NPC."

 _Died._ Sheik mulled over what Hilda had told him, turning a small dagger in his hand distractedly. His first thought went to Vaati, wondering what would happen if the sorcerer encountered the glitchy NPC and was killed in the encounter. Would he come back? He would be okay… right?

He needed to tell Vaati to stay away from this NPC at all costs.

"Do we know how to identify this NPC?" Sheik asked. He'd joked about creepypasta earlier, but there was something about the description of the NPC that unsettled him with its familiarity. Vaati had also shown a similar kind of overpowered potential, and he couldn't help but consider the possibility that another person like Vaati had made it into the game. The only difference was that Vaati couldn't permanently delete a player like this new NPC, but…

"Nindoten was vague and unhelpful. Their support is honestly terrible," Hilda grumbled. "They don't want to admit it yet, but everyone's saying they've been hacked. The NPC has dark skin and red hair. Male. Oh, and they have a unique rank."

"Like Vaati," Sheik said slowly. Vaati had the title 'Reincarnated Wrath,' a title that wasn't even supposed to exist in the game. At his comment, both Sheik and Hilda stopped walking, and they stared at each other in unsettled shock at the parallels that were being unraveled between the unknown NPC and the mysterious sorcerer.

"Their rank was 'Demon King.'" Hilda turned her head in the direction of Vaati's marker. "You don't think…" she trailed off.

Though she didn't finish her thought, Sheik knew that she was thinking the same thing he was. There was another character, no, another _person_ , trapped, just like Vaati was. It couldn't be denied, also, that the rank titles 'Wrath' and 'Demon King' were rather ominous, though Vaati himself hadn't revealed himself to be dangerous thus far. Irritable, perhaps, but not dangerous. At least, that's what Sheik liked to believe.

And if it were true that this Demon King was another person trapped within programming, it revisited the question: just who had been the unknown sender of Vaati's 'download code'?

"Do you think Vaati knows about this?" Hilda asked. "Hey, Sheik?" she repeated, when she saw the rogue's shoulders stiffen. Then, she turned slowly when she realized that Sheik was looking at something behind her. No, not something.

Some _one_.

"Vaati."

_Speak of the devil._

The sorcerer had shown up without any warning of showing save for the slight rush of wind that Sheik was only just getting used to identifying. The enchantress and the rogue stared blankly at the sorcerer, and there was a bit of an awkward silence while the two wondered if the sorcerer knew they had been talking about him. Sheik was the first to open his mouth to speak, but then hesitated when he saw Vaati do the same.

In fact, he was caught off guard by how… almost rattled the sorcerer looked. He regretted making a motion to speak, for Vaati also stopped himself when he saw Sheik begin to speak. In that split second, Vaati seemed to instantly change his mind, his eyes steeled, and he turned away. He'd walled himself off.

"Vaati, what is it?" Sheik asked, and then his voice nearly cracked at the end when he caught sight of a flicker of emotion on Vaati's normally passive face, the initial wall breaking slightly at Sheik's question.

Pain, as the sorcerer opened his mouth to speak once more, almost like he wanted to tell Sheik something but a part of him was holding back, afraid. It was the most human expression that Sheik had seen him reveal, and the rawness of it frightened him. And then, Vaati hesitated, pulling back as his expression became shadowed. His face darkened, becoming unreadable, and then without another word he strode over, sliding past the startled Hilda and reaching for Sheik.

Sheik stepped backwards reflexively, but Vaati's strides quickly closed the distance between them. To Sheik's surprise, Vaati grabbed his right hand firmly, pulling him close. The sorcerer made no explanation as to his sudden actions, and clasped both hands around Sheik's right hand, lost in his thoughts as he ran a thumb along the rough leather of the rogue's gloves.

As much as Sheik wanted to ask what had unsettled the sorcerer, he kept his quiet, afraid to send him further into reclusion if he pressed too much. There was something that hurt Sheik, the way Vaati seemed to absentmindedly trace a triangle with his thumb on the back of his hand. Vaati gazed upon it with both resignation and… an almost lonely kind of longing.

"You don't belong here," he finally whispered, and he released Sheik's hand, though it almost seemed like his fingers lingered just a few seconds longer than necessary, reluctant to let go. He looked up slowly, and Sheik held his breath when he saw the intensity of the fire burning behind Vaati's red eyes. They were the fires tended by a man who had once tried to change the fate he'd been chained to. Still trying to. "But neither do I."

And without another word, Vaati logged out of Asphodel, leaving Sheik and Hilda wondering what he'd meant.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading up to here! I am more chatty on my ff.net account, and you can also find me on 'thewishingcap' on tumblr where I sometimes post fanart of my fanfics.


	8. For You, Anything

"Congratulations Sonya darling, just a few more days and they will have to acknowledge you as acting Company President. A few more, and I can make sure they recognize it as your official title."

It was getting late, but Sonya found herself once again one of the last to remain in the main headquarters of Nindoten. To say the past week had been busy was an understatement: starting with the removal of Elliot Wilson, she'd moved swiftly with Veran to tie up loose ends and to further position herself to transition into the leading position of the company. "Strike fast before they know what's going on," Veran had said.

And Veran had been a viper. The Navi had managed to find a wealth of information, company secrets, and blackmail, all of which it had quickly used as leverage to help Sonya where she needed to go. Veran had mentioned in passing that she prided herself in manipulation and subterfuge, and seeing it in action had been… awe-inspiring. Sonya's rise to the top was with unprecedented speed, and it was almost entirely thanks to Veran. When asked how the sorceress seemed so comfortable with juggling people to move as she saw fit, Veran had explained with amusement that, no matter what era, "humans don't change."

Sonya closed her eyes, leaning gently against the wall next to the window that overlooked the rest of the city below. She exhaled slowly, allowing herself to relax if only for a moment, though she remained standing, not completely trusting herself to rest just yet. "It's not over just yet," she said softly at the SS in her hand.

"Good. You're focused," the SS replied with approval. A green light glowed from the SS's status light, while Sonya gave a single, tired nod in response. The woman opened her eyes, then, and looked out at the building across from her thoughtfully, dark curls falling across her face. It was the same building where Elliot had been bewitched to fall to his death.

 _Disgusting man,_ she thought, but the anger that she'd held had cooled to low embers, leaving behind only a sickening feeling of… not quite regret but doubt. Veran said she was focused, and while it was true that she was focused on justice, Sonya sometimes couldn't help but think that she would eventually lose sight of what it was that she truly wanted. _Elliot, falling. That's what I'd wanted…_

"Running out of energy?"

Sonya stirred, her chin lifting slightly at Veran's inquiry. The question was more concerned than impatient, a curious side to the sorceress who struck Sonya as more the type to keep a cold distance between others and herself, so she could more easily toss them aside as soon as they became useless. "No," Sonya replied.

"Exactly what I like to hear," Veran chuckled. "Some more news for you, then. Perhaps you should be sitting down - "

"No," Sonya interrupted stubbornly, and she pushed herself against the wall so that she was no longer leaning against it. "Who am I if I can't take this burden with my own legs," she said, though she strode over to the desk where she'd left half a cup of coffee, now cold, and downed it.

"A woman to make the old kings kneel," Veran laughed, like a tinkle against crystal glass. Then, her voice lowered, words curling like a snake coiling before a strike. "I have heard," she began, the screen of the device flickering to pull up what seemed to be a report, "a thirty-five year old man by the name of Drake Evans has been found dead as of last night. I was able to access some of the investigation reports that haven't been released yet, and the investigators believe he had died after playing Asphodel too long without logging out."

"Faulty Navi, didn't force him out of the game? That isn't a problem on our side. We only deal with the game programming, not Navis." Sonya cut in defensively, anticipating what Veran was getting at. "If you think there is a chance that the police will get in touch with me then-"

"I can handle that. No, it's… the details are rather strange," Veran interrupted her. "Burns along his jaws like he breathed fire." Then, the confidence that the Navi normally carried broke momentarily, and there was a hesitant blink of orange from the device in Sonya's hands. "I… still need to think about it. Have you ever heard of a dragon, Onox?" she asked after a moment's pause.

Sonya, concern creeping across her face in tired lines. "Veran…?"

Almost immediately, the Navi brushed the question aside when it was clear Sonya didn't know who she referred to. "It's just a hunch. Don't worry yourself over it, honey."

Sonya's frown, however, remained. The woman was used to Veran's mentions of sorceries, and though the idea of _dragons_ seemed farfetched if the Navi was being literal about it, enough had happened in Sonya's life the past week that she was willing to stretch her imagination enough to consider that dragons were real. More importantly, dragons or no dragons, it was obvious that there was something about the death that Veran found familiar. Sonya lifted the Styrofoam cup with coffee, glanced down when she realized she'd already emptied it, and then set it aside on a nearby table. Instead, she walked over to the imposing black office desk on the far side of the room, opened the bottom drawer, pulled out a bottle of whiskey and poured herself a glass. Whatever Veran was going to talk about, coffee probably wasn't going to cut it anyway. "Is it by any chance related to the 'rogue code' that erased the accounts of several players in Asphodel?" she asked softly, "You said you suspected the code to be something like… you."

"I don't think the two are necessarily related, but I suspect they might be like me," Veran confirmed.

There was silence between them while Sonya turned over Veran's answer in her head, and the dark skinned woman moved to finally take a seat in one of the high backed black leather executive chairs in the room. They listened to the usual murmur of the city past dusk, of the car horns and of the SpeedRail rushing between the forest of skyscrapers. Then,

"… Did you know them?" Sonya asked, looking at her reflection in the glass of whiskey in her hand. When she was met with a long pause, the woman glanced over to the the softly glowing Navi resting on her lap. After a few uncertain flickers, Veran spoke again.

"Sonya, I have a request."

"Anything for you, Veran," Sonya replied without hesitation, not pressing the issue on why Veran hadn't responded to her question. She trusted the sorceress would tell her eventually in her own way, if it was important. They were a team. They'd agreed to that at the start of all of this.

Veran appeared almost grateful and the two green lights blinked from the device. "I traced a record of a call made by someone in this city who called Sheikah Systems for a faulty Navi. The account matches with the identifier for a player holding two accounts in Asphodel."

"It's impossible for players to have multiple accounts," Sonya said, tilting her head as she brought the glass of whiskey to her lips.

"You have two."

"But that's because-" Sonya froze. Slowly, she brought her glass back down on the table when it began to dawn on her what the sorceress was getting at. "Veran…" she began soberly, but she wasn't quite sure how to finish her thought.

Veran continued. "I want to meet the person who is in possession of this SS, Sonya. Specifically, I want the Navi in the device." The green light dulled, and then turned a deep, intense red as Veran purred, "I do dislike competition."

Her brows knitted together, Sonya reached for the whiskey glass once again. Then, she reconsidered, pulling back her hand as the unease in her eyes was replaced by steely determination. "… Anything for you, Veran," she repeated.

A flicker back to green. A smirk. And then Veran gave her a name.

"His name is Vaati."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It had been a few days past since the last time Zelda had visited Asphodel. Part of it was due to how busy she'd been to catch up on school work, but part of it had been because of the way the last session had ended. Ever since Vaati had abruptly left the game in the middle of a session, he'd retreated back to his own space, only occasionally making any indication of being present. She understood that he wanted to be left alone, and though she respected his wishes, she couldn't help but be concerned for him.

She kind of missed the glimpse she'd caught, brief though it had been, of his cheerful, cheeky side. She knew it was there, but it was buried beneath his hardened bitterness.

It was past four, and she'd returned back home after classes had finished. At the moment, she was picking open a small box, trying to cut through or peel back the packaging tape with a pair of scissors. She had her back to the SS so that Vaati wouldn't see what she was doing until she was ready to surprise him.

 _I wonder what you'd seen while you'd been alone in Asphodel_ , she thought. The lid of the small cardboard box finally pulled free from the packaging tape, and Zelda hastily rummaged for its contents, occasionally brushing aside her long pony tail that fell over her shoulders and got in the way of her work. Her fingers paused on the packing bubbles when Vaati's words from a few days ago echoed in her head:

_You don't belong here._

_But neither do I._

Zelda sighed, and then went back to pulling out a small, black, cylindrical device with a clear lens and a clip-on hook. She wasn't entirely sure what Vaati had meant by those words, but she could guess that it had something to do with him being trapped in the SS device. A person, trapped in an SS device.

She took a cursory look through the instruction manual that had also been included in the box, and then tossed it aside in the waste bin. She took a pin and pressed the small activation button on the cylindrical device, and then she turned over her shoulder to look at the SS she'd left on the floor behind her. She bit her lip. Vaati wasn't _unfriendly_ towards her, but he was clearly avoiding her for the past two to three days.

He needed… a distraction. Fresh air.

On her hands and knees, Zelda approached the SS device and then picked it up gingerly in her hands. She knew Vaati was there from the way the light on the device momentarily flickered a questioning orange before dimming. "I'm going to install a driver and then sync this camera to your SS," Zelda explained aloud, "it might be surprising, just to warn you."

Then, she pressed a small button on the side of the SS device, holding it down for three seconds, and then navigated through some installation prompts that appeared on the screen. During this time, Vaati remained aloof, but there were occasional blinks of light like he was curious about what she was doing.

Once done, Zelda clipped the camera to the collar of her blue grey military style jacket, playing with it for a few minutes to make sure it was angled okay.

"All set," Zelda said, standing up. She brought the SS to her face, and smiled. "Accompany me?" she asked, mirroring what Vaati had said the first time they had met within Asphodel.

There was static for response. A snort, which seemed to say 'As though I have a choice.'

It wasn't much, but it was something, and definitely more than what Vaati had offered ever since their last session in Asphodel. She'd caught his attention. _Promising._

Grabbing a small shoulder bag and fitting a wireless earphone connected to the SS into her right ear, Zelda made her way out of her apartment and to the city. "I want to show you some more of where I live," she said, though she didn't expect a response back, "Hyrule City."

For the next half hour, Zelda told Vaati stories and anecdotes, little histories of the city she'd grown up in. There were one or two curious glances thrown her way from passerby, but for the most part, people seemed to assume that she was talking to someone on the phone. It wasn't completely uncommon for long distance friends and lovers to use the camera feature to give each other a video tour, so while it was mildly embarrassing, no one questioned her.

Vaati remained silent the entire time, until they finally reached a small park on the south side of the city. Skyscrapers were replaced by real trees, and the sidewalk transitioned into smooth paving that snaked through neatly mowed grass. Wooden benches were spaced evenly along the path, and there were already people spending the afternoon relaxing with some reading opened on their SS device. "And this is Faron Park. The staircase fountain over there apparently used to be - "

"Faron Woods."

Zelda almost fumbled over her words when she heard Vaati's unmistakable voice through the earphone. She stopped in the middle of the path she'd been walking, wondering if she hadn't imagined his voice.

"This used to be Faron Woods," Vaati repeated, and the touch of bitterness didn't go unnoticed by Zelda. "Most of it removed through development over the span of roughly forty years. All that's left is 634 acres, constructed and reconstructed at a cost of five hundred million rupees…"

As he spoke, he'd gone from bitter nostalgia to an almost cold recitation of facts, like he was reading off of an information page. Zelda resisted the urge to ask if he was familiar with Faron Woods, given that he hadn't taken an interest in engaging conversation until now. Instead, she made her way to the tiered fountain and sat on the edge, dipping her fingers briefly into the cold water to let it splash along her palms. "I can tell you more about the park, if you'd like," she offered, hoping she wasn't going to end up putting him off from talking to her for the rest of the week.

To her relief, Vaati's response was quick, though no less tart. "I already know all there is to know about the areas you've been muttering about for the past half hour," she heard him scoff through her ear piece, "I can simply read through the information available to me, should I wish to know more. Which I don't."

"You actually _don't_ know everything, Know-It-All," Zelda corrected with a small smile, glad that he was at least talking again. Though he seemed unappreciative, she had a feeling that the sorcerer was interested in the new view of Hyrule he had through the video camera, seeing how he'd become chattier than before.

A long pause. For a few minutes Zelda became afraid that she'd gone too far with the snark, but then…

"I doubt it." A challenge. Almost a dare.

Relief. She hadn't lost him yet. "Okay then," Zelda said, and she readjusted her seat so that she was sitting sideways on the fountain's edge in a way that allowed the camera to face the water. Beneath the surface there were small green gems, each about an inch long. Rupees, tossed into the pool by passerby. "People sometimes come here to make wishes."

"Throw a rupee and make a wish. A foolish endeavor with a clear misunderstanding of how magic fundamentally works," Vaati said disdainfully. He sounded unimpressed, and perhaps even a little disappointed that this was the best Zelda could do with the challenge. Before he could make another mocking remark or worse, pull away again behind his wall of silence, Zelda continued.

"I used to come here with Nohansen, I mean, my father," she corrected herself, pausing a second for a small tired sigh, "when I was little. Before we left the park, he'd always let me throw a rupee in the fountain to make a wish."

Resting on her blue jeans, the SS on her lap blinked a slow yellow at the word 'wish,' but remained quiet. Vaati hadn't shut himself away just yet, and appeared to be listening, for now.

"I'd wished for a pet cat," Zelda laughed, somewhat embarrassed. Her feet scuffed the grass as she spoke. "I'd figured asking for a horse was a bit much, so I reasoned a cat was better. Two months and ten wishes, it came true."

Zelda could almost hear the eyeroll from Vaati. "Or your father simply bought one for you after that many days of hearing you wish for one."

"You're right, actually. Nohansen spoiled my young imagination by telling me the truth of what had happened," Zelda agreed, flashing a small smile at the SS on her lap. Then, she leaned back to take in the autumn sky, but then she paused when her eyes caught sight of a father walking along the path in front of them, being led by the hand by a young girl no older than eight. They looked close, happy. Their laughter a distant memory. "Sometimes believing in something is all the magic that you need."

"Hmph."

"Her name was Midna. The sweetest black cat with a white swirl of fur on her chest. She passed away a few years ago, and I had her ashes buried beneath the shrubs by the fountain just over there," Zelda waved a hand at the abelia shrubs growing near the fountain, being sure to angle the camera clipped to her jacket as well. "And that's the fact that you wouldn't have known from your internet searches," she laughed softly.

There was a moment's quiet, a break in the conversation. It wasn't an uncomfortable silence, and Zelda relaxed by the fountain, trailing her fingers along the gurgling water. And then, almost hesitantly like he was doubting himself about whether or not he wanted to continue talking, Vaati murmured through her earpiece.

"… I am not fond of cats."

"No?"

"No."

A grin tugged at the corners of Zelda's lips. "… Hold on." She sat up straight, picking up the SS in her hands again and began to tap through the menus on the screen. "Have you taken a look at apps yet?" she asked as her finger hovered over an icon with several cartoon cats on it.

The light on the SS device was beginning to glow red, and there was apprehension in Vaati's voice. "What are you scheming."

"This is called Neko Atsume," Zelda said as she tapped the icon. The application opened with a cheerful jingle, the title "Neko Atsume: Kitty Collector" scrawled across the screen. Then, it was filled with an illustration of a backyard scene with cat toys scattered about. On one corner was a chubby orange tabby cat stuck in a vase.

The SS's red light faded into a tired orange. "And the point of this is… to collect cats," Vaati said flatly reading the title of the game now open on the screen.

Zelda giggled, and then tapped on the tabby cat still squished inside the vase. The application took a 'photo' of the cat, and then displayed an album where all previous cat photos had been saved. "It's popular, and kind of addicting. More of them will visit you if you feed them, and you can upgrade their toys here so you can find even more cats. Some of them are rare."

"I just explained to you that I am not fond of cats, and the first thing that comes to your mind is to suggest I spend time with a… a _game_ whose sole purpose is to collect cats."

A swipe across the screen to flip through the album photos. Most of it was filled with round cats. Some were on cushions. Some were rolling on the ground. Some were wearing wigs. Some cats were missing. "I figured you don't like them because you haven't seen how cute they can be."

"I-"

"I still haven't found Lady Meow Meow."

"…I don't think you realize just who, exactly, I _am_."

"No, but you never told me, Vaati," Zelda chuckled, and then returned a small smile when the device blinked green in what she imagined was surprise. "I don't know much about you at all. You never seem to want to talk about it."

Vaati fell quiet, and the light stopped glowing as he seemingly retreated back into his thoughts.

"I do know something about you, though," Zelda laughed.

The light turned back on, a questioning yellow.

"You're a friend. Whatever happens, I'll be there for you, I promise."

Another jarred blink, green. Surprise.

Before an awkward silence could settle and before the tinge of red could further creep up her cheeks, Zelda gave another nervous laugh and hastily flicked through several different applications. "Th-there are other applications, or apps, too. Ones that can allow the SS to affect the world here; those apps use something called runes," she explained quickly, forcing down the abashed stammer that had crept into her voice. She rambled, eager to go back to talking about apps instead of embarrassingly sappy declarations of friendship. "You already figured out the camera rune. There are others freely available to install, like the magnesis rune. That one lets you lift small metallic objects, and we might be able to - "

"Like that, over there?"

"Hm?" Zelda's head snapped up. Coincidentally, just ahead on the far side of the park, were some construction workers moving a large metal beam over their heads. The beam floated above them, and seemed to follow the movement of their own SS device that was glowing an electric blue. Bolts of energy traversed between the SS and the metal beam. "Oh, those are industrial power magnesis runes. We'd need a license to unlock those, but we still have smaller ones for personal access and - "

"Wait," Vaati cut her off sharply, "I am reading something."

Zelda's eyebrow raised slightly, but she didn't press Vaati further. He seemed livelier somehow, much different than the reserved, standoffish attitude he'd taken the past few days. She watched several different tabs flash open on the screen, and then a rather troubling terminal window with lines of code being executed blinked on before it quickly vanished. The screen went completely black for several minutes, though the status light blinking periodically indicated that Vaati was still present. From time to time there was some suspicious whirring from the machine like it was being heavily strained. Eventually, the screen returned back to normal, and Vaati spoke once more.

"Turn to your left a little, so that I can see the metallic canister about fifteen feet away," he suddenly demanded.

Still confused, Zelda complied, assuming Vaati would tell her what was going on soon enough. She squared her shoulders so that the video camera clipped to her collar was facing the park's trashcan in front of them. As soon as she did so, she felt the SS device in her hand hum to life, and it sparked the same bright blue as the ones the construction workers had been holding. A bright energy beam snaked its way towards the trashcan.

"Din! How…?" Zelda yelped, and in her surprise her hand jolted upwards, along with the SS. The trashcan mirrored the device's movements, lifting it into the air, further shocking the blonde into another shout.

"I unlocked the access codes," Zelda heard Vaati drawl lazily while she calmed down from the initial shock. Then, he added smugly, "I've been studying."

Zelda stammered, still trying to wrap her head around what had just happened. "But to get them I'd need to pass a licensing examination and-" she froze. Then, she hastily swung her hand downwards to lower the floating trashcan down onto the ground, and then winced when it crashed with a loud 'thunk.' She hissed at the sorcerer between her teeth, careful not to make large hand movements lest she send the trashcan flying elsewhere. "Vaati! If someone sees this and I get caught I - !"

"Then don't get caught," Vaati replied simply. It wasn't his problem.

Zelda stared at her SS, her lips flattened into a thin frown and her eyebrows knitted together, not amused. Behind the brightly glowing blue of the device, the status light flickered, and she could just imagine Vaati smirking at her with his lips pulled up in a crooked curl.

And then she heard it; the almost playful tone he'd had in that rare moment when he'd let his walls down a while ago.

"Half a mile to the east, leave the park and take Lon Lon street to the left," he directed, and as he did so the SS device stopped glowing blue and its connection to the trashcan was severed. Instead, a new image was pulled up on the screen, revealing a satellite image map of the nearby area. "Take the second street to the right and continue for two miles. On your left you should see a narrow alley. There won't be many people there," Vaati explained.

Zelda immediately knew what he was getting at. "This is _extremely_ sketchy, you know that? And also illegal," she said slowly, her eyes narrowing in disapproval.

Vaati hummed. "Did you not promise earlier that, what were the exact words," his voice switched into a almost cooing, mocking one, "'Whatever happens, you will be there for me?'"

Zelda's cheeks flushed, and she opened her mouth to retort but then crinkled her nose instead when the small status light flashed green. "You're an asshole," she finally glowered, but it was half-hearted and there was a smile just barely suppressed beneath her faked frown. She couldn't hold the frown for long, and her smile eventually broke through, and she chuckled to herself. "But fine. This is kind of awesome. Let's go."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

It didn't take too long for the two of them to make it to the alley that Vaati had found about a fifteen minute walk away. Indeed this seemed to be an emptier corner of the city, being part of what appeared to be a failed commercial district filled with mostly vacant storefronts. A parking lot sparse with cars made up most of the block, and there was no one in sight along the street that led to the alley. The alley itself was narrow, but wide enough to allow some tests with the new industrial level magnesis rune that Vaati had somehow finagled into his SS device. Wide enough for some swing room and some large flying metallic objects.

"Okay, so…" Zelda said as she readjusted the camera on her collar to give Vaati a clear view of what she was looking at. She experimentally pointed the SS device at a soda can that someone had tossed into the alley. Almost immediately, Vaati activated the magnesis rune, causing the can to shoot towards the SS before freezing at about a five foot distance away. "Whoa," Zelda exclaimed, not having been quite ready for it. Then, she glanced at the can floating in midair, connected to the SS through magnetic energy.

"Aim the SS at the far wall," Vaati ordered.

Zelda complied, extending her arm out to the dead end on the far side of the alley. Then, without warning, the SS whirred, glowing an even brighter electric blue before energy was released with a buzzing _"whummm_ " and the hovering can exploded forward with incredible speed. It smashed into the wall, cracking the bricks and leaving pieces of singed aluminum flying into the air in small fragments. Zelda stared at what remained of the can with open jaws, and she slowly lowered her arm. "Holy shit," she whispered hoarsely, " _Railgun_ …"

"Hm. Not bad," Vaati mumbled to himself. Then, "Bigger. The metallic case to your left."

Zelda looked at the large, dented trashcan shoved towards the corner of the alley. It was about ten feet long and at least four feet high. "Are you going to railgun that thing?"

"I want to test my limitations."

"So basically yes."

"Absolutely."

Zelda had always been a model student, a typical 'good child,' and what they were doing now was an absolutely terrible idea. If she got caught by the authorities she would be in serious, serious trouble. What they were doing now wasn't what the magnesis rune had been programmed for, and it was probably only because of Vaati's unique Navi status that he had been able to repurpose it into a fucking _railgun_.

…She had to see this.

"You're a bad influence, you know that?" Zelda huffed, and she pointed the SS at the gigantic trash bin that was going to become a missile in the next few seconds.

"So I've been told on more than one occasion."

"I've never broken the law once, ever. Not even for jaywalking."

The device glowed once more, and though she couldn't feel the weight of the bin on her arms, Zelda found herself holding the SS with both hands, just in case.

"Ready?" Vaati asked with almost a hint of childish impatience. The potential for destruction seemed to put him in good spirits.

"Hold on, let me uh, let me try to find a safe direction first." Zelda's gaze followed along the walls of the alley. She figured it would be a bad idea to launch a ten-foot long metallic object into the walls, since she was pretty sure that if Vaati could summon enough force then it would punch a hole right through the brick. Maybe she could shoot it straight up into the air? While still a terrible idea, that sounded marginally less of a bad idea. Unless -

She turned around back towards the street in an effort to find more options. As soon as she did so, she froze and her face began to pale. Zelda redoubled her grip on her SS, making sure she didn't drop it in her surprise.

There was someone watching her at the entrance of the alley. The setting sun was angled in a way that made them difficult to see, but from the shadowed silhouette, Zelda could tell that it was a woman. She seemed to be a well-dressed business woman, wearing a stylish high collared shirt tucked into a fitted pencil skirt. She stood poised in her high heels, graceful and confident even on the uneven pavement of the cracked sidewalk.

"Do you have a license for the level 5 magnesis rune?" the woman asked, crossing her arms over chest. She made no move to approach, but she remained firmly blocking the way out of the alley.

Zelda slowly lowered the trash bin back to the ground, though the magnesis rune remained activated as Vaati had yet to turn it off. "Yes," she said, her head rushing through scenarios of potential stories she could give this woman. _What is she even doing here?_! _This place was supposed to be empty, talk about unlucky!_

"Mhmm," the woman tapped a carefully manicured finger on her arm. As she did so, Zelda noticed a white, bracelet model SS wrapped around her right wrist. "May I see that device?"

Zelda stiffened, and her knees bent ever so slightly in a crouch. "I would like to know who I am speaking to, first," she answered curtly.

The woman ignored her and held out her hand impatiently. "The device, please. Otherwise I will call the authorities and report you for illegal access to a level 5 magnesis rune." The perfectly tousled curls of her dark hair tumbled across her eyes as she tilted her head, and there was something about them that unsettled Zelda. She thought she'd imagined it at first, but Vaati seemed to have caught it as well.

"Zelda," he said sharply. She didn't remember the last time he'd ever addressed her by her name, and this made her worry even more. "Stay away from her."

And then she knew she hadn't imagined it. The woman's eyes had shifted from amber to a blood red.

"Oh, very well. Let me ring up the authorities, then," she sighed, and then began to tap some keys into her SS.

Or at least, tried to. As soon as the woman reached to press the first key to call the police, Zelda swung her arm hard and aimed it just to the left of the woman towards the brick wall. "Vaati _NOW!"_ she cried.

On cue, the SS in her hand sprung to life, howling as energy charged and then exploded as the magnetic force reversed, sending the ten-foot long trash bin hurtling forwards. It collided against the brick with an earsplitting bang, and the ground shook from the impact. Zelda had aimed it so that it would miss the woman by a large margin, but the resulting explosion was tremendous enough that she was concerned about what she had done. It had only been meant as a distraction, not to hurt…

" _RUN_."

Vaati's shout brought her out of her thoughts, and she willed her legs to move. She didn't get very far, however, because she was knocked backwards with an invisible force slamming into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. She felt the denim tear where the asphalt slid against her thighs, and she winced as her elbows slammed against the concrete. Zelda heard the click of heels approaching before she saw them, and when the dust began to settle she saw the woman striding over, a sphere of glowing blue energy spinning in her palms. The woman appeared completely unscathed by the prior explosion.

_Magic? No, it can't be._

"My name is Sonya," the woman said, towering over Zelda who was struggling to get back up on her feet. Sonya's eyes, flickered back from Gerudo amber to the red Zelda had seen earlier. Her voice changed ever so slightly, holding a much more menacing edge. "And I, Veran. Hand over your SS and we'll let you go quietly."

" _Zelda_ ," Vaati hissed, urgency rising.

Zelda coughed up some dust that had gotten into her lungs, and then very slowly stood back up onto her feet. She wasn't sure what was going on or what Sonya (Veran?) wanted, but as soon as she'd seen her summon the crackling energy sphere, she knew that the woman was related to Vaati and his situation somehow. Were Sonya and Veran like her and Vaati? She could see some strange black shadows extending from the SS device on the woman's wrist that weren't there before.

"I'm nice until you cross me darling, don't get any ideas," Veran purred. "Besides, you don't want that graceless sorcerer with you. I'll give you a replacement. Now hand him over."

Zelda clenched her teeth together, her fingers wrapped tightly around Vaati's SS. "I don't know what you want," she hissed, and then pointed her SS in Veran's direction, "but I won't let you take him." Her eyes gleamed, and she shouted, " _Now!"_

The SS came to life once more, glowing blue.

And then the magnesis rune activated.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! I will be trying my best to update here, but my main account is ff.net (fleets) if you want to be absolutely sure you're getting the most recent chapters :)


	9. Veran

" _Now!_ "

The SS glowed blue as the magnesis rune activated. Veran whirled around at Zelda's command, but it was too late, and a large piece of the smashed trash bin behind her went flying towards the device. It slammed into the sorceress, knocking her over hard onto the ground along the way. At the same time, Zelda bolted forward, flinching when the energy sphere that Veran had been charging nicked the side of her cheek. Blood streaked from the cut, and she was thrown forwards when an explosion rocked the ground from somewhere behind her from the energy sphere colliding into the wall. She swiftly got back up on her feet and ran as fast as she could away from the dazed woman.

Behind her, Veran, still possessing Sonya's body, stumbled back onto her feet. She cursed under her breath as she stood up, her upper body scuffed from falling on the grainy asphalt. However, she appeared mostly fine thanks to a magical barrier she'd summoned just before the metal projectile had crashed into her. She rubbed the flecks of blood beginning to spot her chin where she'd hit it against the ground. "Don't make this difficult for the both of us," she hissed between her teeth, and then arced her hand across.

A blazing wall of fire shot across Zelda's path, preventing her escape. The blonde shouted in surprise, digging her heels to the ground to stop. The fire remained for only a few seconds, but it was enough to send a message: there was no use running.

Zelda whirled around, fingers clenched as Veran approached her with a hand held casually in front her, embers dancing across her fingertips.

"How is she doing that?" Vaati demanded through Zelda's earphone. "Did magic not become obsolete in this era?"

"It… it shouldn't be real," Zelda agreed. However, everything that she was seeing suggested otherwise. _Magic_ was the only way to explain the things Veran was able to do. It was impossible, and yet…

And yet it clicked with the small comments by Vaati that she'd shrugged aside: small comments about enchantments and spells, phrases that she'd dismissed as simply being an artifact of his sometimes archaic way of speaking. Plenty of times she'd wished that the magic that existed in Asphodel would exist in the real world, and now she was seeing irrefutable evidence of it right in front of her eyes.

_How…?_

"You."

This time, Zelda heard Vaati's voice not from her earphone but directly from her SS device so that he could be heard to everyone. His voice carried barely contained rage, and the light from the device glowed a bright red.

"You took Caph's offer," he seethed.

At this, Veran stopped approaching them, and she rested a hand on her hip with an amused smirk on her face. "Oh, so they spoke to you too, did they?" she chuckled. Then, she threw her chin up to the sky, waving a hand airily. "Ha, of course I didn't. I don't need the help of some brat like them," she scoffed.

Meanwhile, Zelda's frown began to deepen. She took a worried glance at the SS in her hands. "Caph?" she asked quietly. This was the first time she'd ever heard of the name, or of the offer both Vaati and Veran seemed to be aware of. Vaati, however, was too preoccupied with Veran to answer her question.

Vaati snapped, "Then _how_ \- "

"Perhaps I'm just a better sorceress than you, Vaati."

Deep silence permeated the air for several long seconds. Then, Zelda noticed the temperature rising from the SS, paired with a loud whirring noise like the machine was being pushed to its limits. She didn't dare drop the device, but she nearly lost her grip when black tendrils began to seep between the cracks of the SS, taking brief silhouettes of bat-like wings before melting away into the air. And then, wind. The air around the device began to stir, circling it like the beginnings of a whirlwind.

"Oh ho, now you're getting it," Veran grinned in mock praise, "All you needed was a little push. Some more practice and you just might be able to blow out a candle."

The whirring increased, and the SS was generating even more heat now, goaded by Veran's barbs. The wind picked up speed, and a tiny, tiny whirlwind swirled into existence just in front of the SS. Before Zelda could begin to wonder if she should drop the SS for her own safety, the machine gave a pitiful whine.

And then its batteries died.

"Vaati? _Vaati?"_ Zelda cried, shaking the SS in her hands. The eerie tendrils had instantly vanished and the device was completely silent. The wind swirling around it stilled. The screen was unresponsive and a dull black.

"Oops. Looks like he overexerted himself, poor old man," Veran snickered. Then, her smile vanished. Her tone became sharp as she slowly approached Zelda, hand outstretched and demanding. "Now hand him over, sweetheart. You saw how dangerous he could be."

Zelda gripped the device helplessly, willing it to wake again even though she knew that it was no use. The status light on the top corner of the SS, just above the screen, remained unblinking. She heard the click of Veran's pointed heels approaching her, and she looked up, unconsciously holding her SS closer to her chest.

"I have no business with you, you know," Veran continued as she walked over. "I'll be sure to give you a replacement for the one I'm taking. You won't even notice a difference. Well, aside from the fact that your Navi will be less talkative, I imagine."

Zelda hurriedly looked around her surroundings. Could she escape? Call for help? If she shouted loud enough, would there be people to hear her?

Reading Zelda's thoughts, Veran smirked. "Call for help all you want, but you'll only be making this more painful for you."

The blonde gritted her teeth in frustration. Veran sounded confident, which probably meant that she already had a plan to deal with her if she tried to call for help. Should she risk it? Or…

Zelda's fingers trailed down to where the shoulder strap of her messenger bag was crossed over her chest, and her eyes steeled, watching Veran carefully. She knew that she probably wouldn't be able to win a fair fight, especially since the other woman had an arsenal of magical abilities that defied normal laws of physics. However,

_If I can catch her off guard, stun her just long enough so I can run out of her sight, then maybe…_

It was a ten second sprint to make it to the side street behind her. She didn't know how fast Veran could run, but if she could delay her long enough to disappear around the corner then she might have a chance. All she had to do was to run far enough to the more populated side of the city.

A hand reaching out. Reaching for her. Reaching for Vaati. A smooth voice, every inflection too calculated to be genuine. "Hand it over and I won't hurt you."

Target distance, three feet.

Without warning, Zelda dug her heels hard into the ground and with one swift motion she pulled on the strap of her bag and swung it towards Veran's face. The bag was mostly empty save for an orange she'd packed for a snack earlier, so it lacked any weight to do any real damage. However, it was enough to startle the sorceress, and Zelda used the time to wind back her left arm. She inhaled through her nose, calmly lining up her punch, and then swung forward through her shoulders for a sharp jab across the other woman's jaw.

Zelda had never taken any self-defense courses, or had really fought anyone in real life. At the same time, she'd spent hours fighting virtual monsters in Asphodel as Sheik, and Sheik knew how to direct the force of a punch and how the fists should be angled. The hit was enough to send Veran careening back to the ground, cradling her jaw in surprise. Zelda herself winced at the numbness along her fist and her reddening knuckles, unused as she was to fighting in the real world. Then, before Veran could recover, she tried once again to escape.

Ten feet. Five feet. Four…

_I can make it!_

The glowing feeling of hope was soon replaced with dread when she heard a sharp hiss followed by some horrific crackling behind her. It almost sounded like the rustle of snake skin, but magnified. The rattling of windowpanes in a storm before they shatter.

_Don't turn back. Just keep running._

Three feet. Two.

_Don't turn ba-_

Before she knew what was happening, something large slammed against her side, sending her skidding across the ground. Her jacket saved her from road rash, but the fabric had become ragged from where the asphalt had eaten it up. Dazed, Zelda crawled for the SS that had flown out of her hands. _Vaati!_

" _Ahh!"_ she shouted when she felt herself picked up high into the air, pinched around her ribs. She kicked and struggled, trying to free herself from whatever it was that had caught her, but it was no avail. After a few seconds, she noticed that she was gripped between two enormous fangs of a colossal, armored spider. The creature, black and purple fur spiked beneath heavy stone scales, was about the size of a bus. Zelda, who'd been stunned into silence for a few seconds, redoubled her efforts to escape. However, she quickly felt a sharp jab of pain against her side, and looking down she noticed one of the fangs digging into her ribs. Black venom dripped from its point, and she felt her strength quickly leaving her.

" _I told you I'm nice until you cross me,"_ Veran's voice rumbled from the spider. The lines of red eyes glowed from behind its armored plates. " _Don't cross me._ "

Zelda could feel her eyelids growing heavy. Desperately she kept her eyes on her teal SS several feet below her, silent and unresponsive on the cracked blacktop. "N… no," she breathed, her words slurring as the effects of the venom kicked in. Her arms, outstretched towards the device, trembled as she tried to keep their strength. "Don't…" Zelda's consciousness slipped away.

The spider released the body, letting it slip between its fangs and crumple onto the ground. It remained observing the body for several more seconds, as though to make sure that Zelda really was unconscious. There was no movement from the blonde, save for the soft rise and fall of her chest from her slow, calm breathing.

Satisfied, the spider stirred, and it became momentarily shrouded in a black shadow that coiled and shrunk until it had returned back to the form of a woman. Veran flipped Sonya's curls away from her face, and then exhaled slowly as she closed her eyes. When her eyes opened again, they were no longer red but yellow, and the white SS around her wrist had sprung back to life.

"I am sorry for having to transform into that ugly spider, Sonya," the SS huffed. The voice had an electronic timber, but it was still Veran's. "Ruining your pretty face, but the girl was struggling and she was getting on my nerves."

Sonya rubbed her temples, recovering from the surprise of transforming into an colossal monster. She took a moment to collect herself once again, taking a deep breath, and looking over herself to make sure she only had two legs and two arms. Once grounded and calm, she looked at Zelda who lay unmoving on the ground in front of her.

She made her way over slowly and crouched by the unconscious Zelda. With an almost reluctant frown, Sonya gently brushed away the bangs that had fallen over Zelda's troubled face. "Will she be alright?" she asked quietly.

"She won't be moving for an hour," Veran replied shortly. Then, she added with a little less terseness, "But yes, she will be fine when she wakes up."

Sonya nodded, relieved, and then picked up the silent SS that Zelda had dropped. Then, she tried her best to pick Zelda up from under her arms. "Let's make sure the thugs don't find her, then," she grunted as she dragged her back towards the alley. It was a slow process, and she seemed to struggle with Zelda's limp weight while she tried to carry her back with high heels, but she was determined and she eventually made it. Once there, Sonya moved her a corner behind some old wooden crates abandoned in the alley.

"You're much too nice sometimes, darling," Veran quipped, but she sounded more amused than annoyed.

A small smile tugged at Sonya's lips at Veran's comment. Then, she reached for the inside pocket of her suit jacket, and pulled out a dark navy SS. It was the newest model, blank and ready to be synched to an account upon activation. Sonya placed the device in Zelda's bag; a replacement for the one she'd taken away from her, as promised. A hint of regret passed over her face as she did so. Zelda looked so young, much too young to get caught up in all of this; with these Navis, powerful personalities from the past…

She didn't want to hurt her if she could help it. If she would go back home to her family with her brand new SS and forget any of this had happened, it would be perfect. It would be better that way, too, for who would even believe the girl's story? That she'd had a sentient Navi, and that a woman had used magic, turned into a spider, and took him away? And not only did she not have anything stolen, but she'd received an even better SS than her old model? No one would believe her.

Sonya dusted herself off and, making one last look over her shoulder to where she'd left Zelda, she made her way back out to the empty streets. She stopped just a moment by the dulled window of one of the vacant stores to look at her reflection, to wipe away signs of blood or dirt from her scuffle. Once done, she began to walk casually down the street while she pulled out the SS that had run out of batteries. 'Vaati,' so Veran had called him, was trapped in this machine. Sonya frowned, turning the device in her hands. "Veran," she asked, her hushed voice muted against the clamor of the busier side of the city, "is he from your time?"

"Older. But I have heard of him," the sorceress replied. She sounded thoughtful and curious, but then she added dismissively, "A vile piece of work, from what the stories tell of him."

"I see."

The status light of Sonya's SS flickered a mischievous blue. "What if I told you I was once as wicked as he was?"

Sonya's steps slowed, her neck angled up towards the skyscrapers towering over them, several blocks away. The setting sun reflected an orange fading into a brilliant blood red. "You've already helped me murder a man, Veran. I can hardly judge you anymore," the woman answered. It was spoken simply like fact, but she thoughtfully ran a finger along her collar's edge, straightening out its wrinkles. Then, she laughed softly to herself, a small, regretful smile on her face. "You're the only one I can trust."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 _Rage_.

His head was a confused mess of thoughts, one after the other, but mostly rage. Rage at his situation. Rage at his limitations. Rage at how absolutely pathetic he had been, further forcing himself to face the fact that even when things were beginning to look less horrible than where he'd started, they were still, at the end of the day, _unacceptable._

Vaati seethed, too consumed in his own wrath to notice where he was or what he had been doing. The power to his SS had been restored, but he hadn't so much as checked where he had woken up to or what had happened while he had been trapped back in a dark, endless void.

He felt disgusted for allowing himself to feel ecstatic and accomplished over discovering the powerful magnesis app. For a split second, he'd felt powerful again, able to influence the real world and inspire awe with his abilities. But then…

 _Veran_.

He'd never heard the name before, but she seemed to at least know of him. No doubt she was another, condemned as evil and sealed… until Caph had revived her much like they had with him. Perhaps someone from after his time, then. What infuriated him, however, was that she had commanded sorcery in a way that he hadn't realized was possible in their current state. How? _How?_

His rage simmered somewhat as he played back what had happened just moments before everything had gone black. Spurred by Veran's provocation, he'd worked himself up to pushing the SS to its limits. In that moment he remembered… almost ignoring the fact that he no longer had a real body to cast spells with, focusing only on summoning a powerful gale against Veran in the same way he'd once done in the past. He'd let go of thinking that he could no longer do things because he'd lost his body.

And it had worked. It hadn't been the same, but he remembered seeing the dust swirl from the wind created by the device. That had been his doing. _His_. It hadn't been much, but it had been… something.

Vaati blinked, and his brows began to furrow when he slowly came to the realization of what his rage had distracted him from before. His prison had lost power. Zelda -

_Zelda?_

He whirled around, turning his head every which way for any sign of Zelda. Then, his face contorted into one of confusion, when he finally realized that he was controlling a body. A body, with hands and feet, a head to turn, eyes to blink, a mouth to twist into a frown. He was back in the body he had in Asphodel, and the familiar smooth texture of his dark purple cloak brushed against his shoulders.

"So you're the sorcerer of winds, hm? I've always been curious about you."

His head snapped towards the voice, and then he saw her, stepping out of the darkness. No, it was more like the darkness parted as she appeared, the background melting, morphing into something more familiar; the white fields of Asphodel, but this world was grainier and its artificial nature was accentuated with the lack of textures and lack of movement. The sorceress herself was wearing a dark cobalt headpiece hiding her eyes, and it extended outwards like the heavy horns of a demon. A flowing drape trailed behind her from her elbows. Her dress was elegant yet commanding, revealing cuts interspersed between armor plates, accentuating her curves.

" _You_ ," Vaati hissed, immediately recognizing her voice as the one who had possessed the woman he and Zelda had encountered in the alley.

"Veran," the sorceress corrected him with an airy wave of her hand. Onyx gauntlets reflected Vaati's glare as they passed by his face. "You're a sorcerer from before my time," she said conversationally. She held a feigned, casual air meant to lower Vaati's guard, but the wind mage wasn't buying it. Veran pulled up a floating terminal and entered a few selections. As soon as she was finished, two opulent lounge chairs draped in navy and threaded with gold appeared where they were. While impressive at first glance, some of the corners and detailing were blurred upon further inspection, like whoever designed them hadn't had enough time to make the finishing touches. Veran dragged a hand across the back of one of them as she watched Vaati with curious interest. " I heard a little about you. Tried to take over Hyrule hm?" she asked, a smirk playing on her lips from beneath the headpiece that concealed most of her face. "Didn't have much luck it seems."

Vaati's eyes narrowed. He made no move to sit or to approach the chairs that had been summoned. "Where are we?" he growled.

"Asphodel's old alpha space. I wanted us to chat, just you and me. Face to face." Veran immediately held up a hand when she noticed Vaati's fingertips crackle with magic. "Oh and, don't waste either of our time by starting a fight. It's not as though we are truly alive, here, and in this alpha environment we can't even feel pain. There is no satisfaction in throwing around meaningless sparkles."

The energy crackling around Vaati's hands momentarily flared as he weighed Veran's words, and wondered if he shouldn't attack her anyway. He thought better of it, however, when he begrudgingly admitted to himself that if nothing came of it, it would only prompt Veran to slight him even more. Instead, he demanded, "Where's Zelda?"

Neither Zelda nor Sheik were anywhere to be seen, still.

Veran made herself comfortable on one of the chairs. She smirked, "Why do you care?"

"Just answer the question," Vaati snapped.

Veran watched him with a catlike smile while she withheld her answer, before the smile eventually flipped abruptly into a frown. "She's fine, if you want to know," she huffed disdainfully, "Sonya didn't want her hurt. I'd rather we got rid of loose ends like that, personally, but I didn't want to upset her too much. We left her where we found you two."

Vaati's eyes narrowed as he studied the sorceress. He remained standing, not taking her invitation to sit down and relax, and he searched her face for any signs of deceit. He couldn't get a good read on Veran, not only because most of her face was shielded by the mask, but because she seemed to keep a very deliberate, calculated control over every expression. He could only take Veran at her word that Zelda was alright, she didn't strike him as being particularly trustworthy. The sorcerer slowly, reluctantly took a seat, but his back remained stiff and he watched Veran closely.

Veran gave nod, pleased that he'd finally sat down. Then she continued, unfazed by Vaati's glare. "I was interested in talking to you, however. Specifically about that _god_ ," she snorted at the word, "Caph, and what you know of them."

While Vaati was far from considering Veran as someone who wasn't an enemy, the sorceress's obvious disdain for Caph prompted him to angle his head slightly in interest. He already despised the sorceress, but anyone against the god was someone he could sympathize with. The creases along his nose softened as his expression became less antagonistic. At the same time, the mention of Caph reminded him of something that had bothered him after meeting Veran and Sonya for the first time.

Vaati leaned forward, with barely veiled threat. "If you didn't take their offer," he asked slowly, "then how were you able to possess that woman?" He didn't, however, admit that he'd been grudgingly impressed at the sorcery she'd commanded.

"You're not very good with names, are you sweetheart. She's Sonya. I'm Veran," the sorceress snorted, and she made sure to deliberately pronounce their names slowly. She flashed a smile upon seeing Vaati fuming, not in the least afraid of the infamous sorcerer. "And don't tell me you haven't figured it out yet. They say you called yourself the greatest sorcerer in the world, back in the day."

"And I'll show you what that _means_ ," Vaati snarled, beginning to stand up from where he'd been sitting.

Veran scoffed. "You had your shot, darling, I wasn't impressed." She added smugly, "Greatest in your time, perhaps, but older models are easily outclassed by the next generation."

There was a roar of wind and a brilliant flash as Vaati unleashed his fury on the smirking sorceress. He'd run out of patience, and he was determined to wipe that arrogant smile off of her face. Unfortunately, what Veran had explained to him earlier had been true, and she remained lounging comfortably in her seat without even a hint of a scratch. Vaati wasn't quite done, however, and he unsheathed his sword and made to stab her in the center of her chest with blazing speed. When Veran continued to watch him with a smile unflinchingly, even with a blade apparently buried in her chest, Vaati made to grab her neck with his bare hands.

This time, Veran casually slapped his hand away. "That's quite enough, is it not? I already explained that fighting is a waste of time, here, and I'd rather make better use of my time." With a single sweep, she pulled the sword lodged below her collar bone and tossed it back to the wind mage. "That's the problem with you. Much too impulsive."

With an infuriated scowl, Vaati snatched his sword back from the air and slammed it back into its hilt. He paced the area around the chairs, kicking up the white petals of asphodel as he did so. Then, finally, he conceded to the fact that there was nothing he could do in this alpha space, aside from entertain the illusion of having a real body that could actually affect the environment. He sat down with a sour look on his face.

Veran, perhaps becoming bored of angering Vaati, took a more serious tone after he had settled back down across from her. She sighed, her smirk disappearing, and she lazily looked at her own reflection in her gauntlets. "If you want to know, you have some influence over sorceries in the immediate surroundings of the prison we are trapped in. You saw that yourself, with the little breeze of yours that you summoned," she explained. "The pulse monitor sensor on the SS is perfect for possession, of which I am an expert of. It works much like placing my hand on someone to possess them."

Vaati still wasn't convinced. "But the amount of power we have through these devices is just a fraction of what we are truly capable of. There is clearly more you are not telling me."

"… Or maybe there is nothing more to tell. Perhaps I am just a better sorcerer than you, Vaati?" Veran shrugged, ignoring Vaati's eye twitch at her comment. She paused, as though considering whether or not to tell Vaati any more than what she'd already revealed. She glanced towards the wind mage who, while seething, seemed to be waiting for her to explain how she had succeeded in something he'd given up as impossible. After several long seconds, much to Vaati's frustration, she changed the topic. "At any rate, no, I am not in the slightest interested in Caph's deal. I am quite satisfied with where I am right now."

Vaati, who had been about to press her for more information about her possession magic, stopped when he was taken aback by her comment. His brows knitted together, and he waved his hands at their surroundings in disbelief. "… You're satisfied with this _mockery_?" he asked.

"I have ample patience," the sorceress snorted. "There is another reason, however."

Vaati kept a careful watch of the woman who had suddenly pushed herself up from where she'd been lounging, sitting up so that she was properly facing him. Her flippant attitude was gone, now, and instead her guileful tone was replaced with on that was more serious. Grave.

"A man by the name of Drake Evans was found dead. A man who, I believe, was in possession of another like ourselves," Veran continued. "General Onox. I knew that oaf personally." There was a brief, almost bitter chuckle, barely audible, like she was remembering something from long ago. "Drake had an Asphodel account. No, he'd had two. Just like you and your blue blood. Just like myself and Sonya." She looked up slowly at Vaati, as she said quietly, "One of them, however, is gone from our servers."

Vaati frowned. "You think this Onox is-"

"Dead." Then, Veran took a deep breath. "Or worse. Caph didn't strike me as one who was confident in what they were experimenting with. I can't help but feel that something didn't go as planned."

 _Dead_. This, Vaati had no doubt that Veran was telling the truth. Caph hadn't struck him as someone who would be terribly devastated if their tests went wrong and someone died because of it. Had this Onox agreed, and something had gone wrong? Just how many more others like him and Veran were there? His eyes twitched, thinking about more who could potentially be as troublesome as Veran. None of them would compare against his power if he were back in his own body, of course, but he couldn't deny that Veran had a better grasp over the SS than he did. Veran's voice brought him out of his thoughts.

"But what about you?" she asked, "This Caph had already approached you, and yet you are still here, trapped. Doesn't your blue blood also have the Triforce?"

Pointed ears flicked at the mention of the Triforce. Vaati's eyes widened in shock, before his expression immediately steeled to hide it. It hadn't gone unnoticed by the sorceress, however, and she shrugged in response.

"Oh don't look so surprised, it's no secret to me that she has it."

"You knew about the Triforce, and yet you allowed Zelda to go?" Vaati asked, suspicion rising in his voice.

Veran cocked her head with a smile. "I learned my lesson long ago. Those who chase after the Triforce don't usually have happy endings. I'll take it one day, when the fancy strikes me, but I have no interest in it right now at all," she added. Then, she leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands as she watched Vaati carefully. "No, I want to know everything you know about Caph, Vaati. And everything you know about Ganondorf."

Vaati froze. For once it was a name he recognized, and recognized well. His cold expression fractured into one of inquiry. It was the name of someone long past, someone he'd encountered during one of his brief escapes to the outside world before he'd been trapped once more in the void of the sword. His voice was quiet. Whispered. "… He's here?"

Veran nodded. "You see, I like where I am right now. I feel comfortable with the control I currently have," she huffed, "and I would like to know all of the pieces I am _dealing with_ in case things do not go as planned."

Then, Veran reached forward towards the table that sat between them. She tapped it lightly with her finger, summoning a bottle of fine wine and two crystal glasses. She poured herself a glass, and then held it to her lips with a wry smile.

"So?" she asked the wind mage, "Can we have a conversation, darling?"


	10. Rogues

_He's gone…_

Weary footsteps slowed as they approached the door leading to the apartment complex on the East side of the city. Zelda's face was haggard, her breath once shallow from running through the streets now slowed to defeated sighs. Daylight had gone, hours ago, and the sky was long since a dark blue with stars dulled behind the city lights. She steadied herself against the cool frame of the door, the glass smudging from the sweat and grime collected on her fingertips.

 _He's_ _ **gone**_.

When she'd woken, she'd found herself settled behind some old crates in the alley where they'd first encountered Sonya and Veran. Though her body ached, she hadn't been hurt beyond the scuffs and scratches she'd earned during her fight with the sorceress. To this she had been surprised, as she'd assumed that, after seeing what Veran was capable of, she would be disposed of.

 _Unless they really just, don't see me as a threat._ She thought. And it was right for them to think that. _I couldn't do anything…_

The realization of that had stung more than anything. Finding the replacement SS, even worse. She recalled Veran telling her she would be compensated for her loss, and the woman had kept her word. When Zelda had first found her new SS, a dark navy one of the newest model, she'd felt like she'd completed a terrible transaction. She hadn't agreed to the trade, but she hadn't been able to stop it from happening, either. The weight of the newest SS had been heavy in her hands, and though in a fit of frustration and anguish she'd nearly broken the device right then and there, she hadn't been able to do it. She needed it. She couldn't get around the city without it - couldn't navigate her _life_ without it, entrenched as it was in every aspect of city life.

For the first hour she'd run from street to street, looking every which way for any sign of where the dark skinned woman had gone. She'd refused to even look at the SS, the weight of it in her bag a heavy reminder of her failure, as she'd breathlessly sprinted from one block to the next. It wasn't until she had become lost, far from her initial starting point and increasingly coming to terms that she wasn't going to find Sonya, that she had slowly removed the SS from her bag.

She had been angry. Her hands trembling as she gripped its case, desperately willing the status light to blink like it always did, followed by a soft huff or disdainful yet curious snort from the machine. Instead, however, she had been welcomed by the standard, monotone drone of the general Navis, asking her to synch the device to her account.

Giving in so that she could use it to find Vaati had been one of the hardest things she'd ever had to do. It was almost like she was admitting that she had lost, that even though she was still going to try her hardest to get him back, she had already mentally prepared herself of never seeing him again.

Zelda gritted her teeth, her fingers pressing against the glass panes along the door. _I'm just so powerless…_

She didn't want to walk through that door, because to walk through it would be to acknowledge that she had given up trying to find where Vaati had gone for the day. She knew all too well that the more time passed, the more impossible it was going to be for her to ever find him again.

And so she stood there, her hands tense against the door, trembling slightly from both fatigue and despair. A part of her was aware that it was getting late, and that standing outside the apartment complex's door would accomplish nothing. But she couldn't… to do so would be to admit she had failed.

"Excuse me."

Zelda jolted at the voice, and then hastily moved aside for another tenant who'd wanted to make their way inside. She apologized quietly, and then watched with a pained expression the woman who'd brushed past with an armful of groceries. Just before the door shut closed once again, Zelda held out her hand, stopping it, and then slowly stepped inside. The thud behind her was heavy, final, and her gaze was cast downward the entire ride up the elevator to the ninth floor where her apartment was.

Hesitantly, she pulled out her new SS. There was no tired sigh or irritable blink as she retrieved the electronic key that would open the door. Instead, all she heard was the standard blip and a confirmation tone that the door had been unlocked.

"Oh hey, you've been out."

Zelda lifted her chin, enough to acknowledge her father who was sitting on the couch, flipping through a list of movies on the television screen. She waited for him to say something more, but he'd gone back to his movie list, hemming and hawing about what he wanted to watch. He was still in the shirt he'd gone to work in as though he couldn't be bothered to change out, but he'd slipped into some lazy sweats to relax for the night. Dirty dishes were left out on the coffee table in front of the sofa. Wings, from the looks of it.

And that was it. No comment asking why she had been out so late. No comment regarding the scuffs along her knees and her elbows, parts of the denim rusted with hints of blood. It helped that he didn't ask her, but at the same time she almost wished he would have noticed. Would have asked. About _her,_ and not about -

"They gave you a replacement, huh?"

He'd turned around, then, though occasionally glancing back at the TV. He was nodding at the brand new navy SS that was hanging limply in her hand. The device was much easier to talk about… easier to talk about than her. "Good thing we were both covered in warranty, huh? And did they even give you an upgraded model?"

Conversation. Conversation to somehow break the awkward pauses that somehow always seemed to settle between them. Zelda froze when she noticed Noha-, her _father_ , smiling at her earnestly from behind his bush of a beard like he was excited that the two of them might have finally had something in common to share. She couldn't dare look at him when he seemed to pull up his own SS that he'd received under warranty too, to further stress the point.

He didn't get it. He couldn't know. A rare attempt at trying to talk about something they could both relate to was shattered by the fact that the topic was something too painful for her to bear. She faltered at his expectant smile, coming close to almost telling him that she wasn't okay, that she'd just lost a friend. That she'd _failed to save him._ She'd faltered too long, for by the time she'd almost come up with the words to say he'd already turned his attention back to the television, perhaps abashed himself by the clumsy atmosphere between them. She turned away, quietly grabbing herself a plate of leftovers. A forced smile cracked on her face. "Yeah, good thing," she said weakly, and she made her way up to her room.

Back in her room, Zelda sat down at her desk, staring blankly at the SS in her hands. By the time she'd finally moved again, the chicken wings had gone cold and remained untouched. Her hands twitched, hovering over the screen of the SS. Eventually, she tapped it with reluctance, but also with some hope that maybe, maybe the machine would blink on with that familiar tired sigh with barely concealed intrigue.

"Welcome Zelda. It is now ten fifteen P.M."

She clutched the machine tightly, biting her lip when only the dull monotone greeted her. The program was just a Navi, now. Things were back to the way they'd been, before the mysterious sorcerer had been sent to her SS. With the new SS, she could go back to her life. Move on and pretend she had never met Vaati.

But no. _No_ , things weren't back to the way they'd been. They _couldn't_ go back to the way they'd been. She couldn't just forget what had happened and move on, pretending like nothing had changed. Vaati was more than just a rogue program, more than just a person; she'd called him a friend and she'd meant that. And right now, her friend needed help.

Her previously defeated eyes snapped back into focus, and she began to type furiously into her SS, running search after search for anyone named Sonya or Veran. Using the replacement SS with the robotic, soulless Navi only filled her with anger, but she couldn't just give up. Couldn't just -

_Over 1000 hits…_

Zelda's lip quivered and she paused for a moment. Then, she went back to tapping the screen, a little more slowly now. The sheer number of matches was overwhelming, but -

_I can't give up…_

She clicked through each Sonya that she found in her search, trying to find any pictures with the name if she could. Not all of the names had photographs. She didn't even know if all of the Sonyas in the city were included in the search database. She didn't even know if the Sonya she was looking for actually lived in Hyrule City.

_I can't give up…_

The truth was, she knew very little about anything. Not about Sonya, not about Veran. Not about Vaati. Her fingers remained still on the screen when she remembered his mention of Caph, just before he'd been taken away by Veran. Caph - he'd never mentioned the name to her, though he and Veran seemed to know them well. Her expression softened, and she gently lowered the SS onto her lap as she remembered how angry he had been, and had spoken about some kind of offer with… with a _god_?

It really hit her, then, just how little she knew of Vaati. And while she knew, rationally, that he had no obligation to tell her anything, it still hurt to know that he didn't trust her enough yet to tell her about Caph. If she'd known, could she have done something? Could she have stopped Sonya and Veran from taking him away?

She rubbed her eyes, trying to see clearly the blurred list of matched names glowing softly through the screen of the SS. She glared at it, annoyed at the water that was pooling beneath her eyes. As she looked at the device in her hands, a memory from back when she'd first met Vaati surfaced. She could remember it, the way he'd spoken with the words of a beaten man: _The wind was once mine, and now I have nothing._

Her hands shaking, she watched as droplets of water splashed on the screen. Then, she abruptly stood up from her desk and threw her new SS as hard as she could on the bed. She glared at it, watching it bounce on the bedsheets. It remained unresponsive, not even a small blink of blue from the status light in the corner.

Exhausted, Zelda curled up onto her bed, buried her face against the pillows, and cried.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

One day, two? Time was a blurred mess. In the dim lighting of her room, with the blinds closed and the outside world blocked from view, it was difficult to tell if it was even night or day. Devoid of energy, Zelda ran her gaze down the readings she had been assigned for the week, though none of the text seemed to stick in her mind. She went through the motions of completing the assignment, but she was disengaged from everything she was doing. From time to time she found herself glancing at the status light with a pained frown, though she quickly wrenched her gaze away before staring at it too long.

Suddenly, there was a soft buzz, and the SS vibrated in her palms. She rolled over on the bed where she'd been laying with her reading, brushing her hair away from her face. Hilda's name flashed on the top right corner of the screen, and the phone jingled with a cheerful tune. Zelda sighed, a finger hovering over the answer button. She stared at the device for some time, debating on whether or not to answer the call. Eventually, she waited too long and the ringtone faded to silence, and Hilda's name vanished from the screen. Zelda held her breath, and then with a small frown she went back to her readings on cultural psychology.

About three seconds later, the SS rang again. This time, Zelda reluctantly pressed the answer button.

"Zel what happened? I haven't seen you in class at all in the last two days!" Hilda's voice crackled from the speakerphone.

"I just…" Zelda's eyes moved around her room. The desk lamp cast a dull light on the mess around her room; her clothes tossed across the floor where she'd been too tired to put them away, the dirty plates piling atop her desk where she'd scurried food to her room. "I haven't been feeling well," she said quietly. She faked a smile as she looked at the mess she'd been too tired to clean up. "But it's okay. I've been catching up from home." Zelda sat up on her bed. The bedsheets were crumpled up around her, like she'd barely left it in the past few days.

"Oh…" The pause was long enough to suggest that Hilda wasn't entirely convinced. There was silence from the other end, like Hilda didn't want to press her too much but also didn't want to end the conversation there. Eventually, however, there was a small sigh. "Okay Zel. Just… let me know if you need anything okay?"

Zelda almost hung up. She wasn't used to asking for help, or to bring other people into her own problems. However, she'd hesitated too long, and the voice in her head that urged her to hang up the call was interrupted by a more pressing admittance that she _did_ need help. _Vaati_ needed help. "Hilda," she blurted, her words cracking somewhat. She trailed off, the voice in her head telling her to end the call giving one last clamor of protest before it eventually died down. She couldn't do this alone.

"Hilda," she started again, more steady now, "I lost Vaati."

Another pause, though this time more through surprise than skepticism. "Tell me everything," Hilda said gently.

Zelda wasn't the type to open up about her problems. Even when her relationship with her father fell apart after her mother's passing, she'd always been dismissive regarding her own hurt. She was fine. She could handle it. She didn't need other people worrying about what she was going through. She could still function, could still get through it, without burdening anyone else with her own problems.

And so when she began to recount to her best friend what had happened, there was an initial uneasiness. She almost sounded aloof, even, like she didn't want Hilda to know how hard it had been the last two days. How many names she'd gone through out of the thousands of hits, alone, in the hopes that she would find the right one; how she hadn't slept or left her room aside from the brief forays to the kitchen to find something to eat. However, Hilda didn't interrupt once, only occasionally making noise to reassure Zelda that she was still listening on the other line, and after some time Zelda found it easier to tell her everything that had happened. She told her about showing Vaati the city, and about the park. She told her about their discovery regarding the magnesis rune, and chuckled a little when she told her about how Vaati had managed to turn an innocent little app into a railgun. She told her about Veran, and how utterly outmatched they had been when she'd stolen Vaati from her.

She told her about how she'd failed to help Vaati.

When the narrative was done, Hilda didn't hesitate, consoling her on the first thing that Zelda had most feared while telling her story. "I believe you, Zel," she said.

The tenseness in Zelda's hands left as soon as she heard those words. She lowered her head and her shoulders fell in something like relief, and she leaned back against the bedframe tiredly.

"You said her name was Sonya? And Veran?" Hilda continued from the other line.

"Yes. I've tried searching their names but Sonya is too common, and Veran doesn't show up anywhere."

There was a brief silence as Hilda turned Zelda's words over in her head. When she spoke next, she already sounded apprehensive, like she knew what the response would be. "Zel did you talk to the police about this?"

"What would I even tell them?" Zelda asked with a bitter smile. "They wouldn't believe me."

Another lapse into silence, though neither of them made any move to end the call. They were both aware that there was very little either of them could do with what little information they had, but neither of them wanted to be the one to admit that outright. They both knew better than to spout empty phrases of hope, phrases like how everything would be alright, or that things would get better.

A small, doubtful chuckle from Hilda caused Zelda to stir. "Sending a message over Neko Atsume," Hilda laughed softly, "You could have just talked to me, Zel."

Zelda sat up a little straighter, her brows beginning to furrow. "I didn't send you a message over Neko Atsume," she said. There was no answer from Hilda for a while, and then Zelda caught a small gasp. "Hilda?"

"… Sonya Driscoll."

"Huh?"

"Zel," Hilda repeated incredulously, "her name is _Sonya Driscoll_."

"How did you find that out?" Zelda asked, but she was rapidly reentering her search for the name that Hilda had just given her.

"It has to be your boyfrie - "

" _Not my boyfriend, Hilda_."

"-nd Zel. He's sent the same name through every app he could send me a message to, including my email. Every single one of them with that name, and every single one is sent through your account." Hilda sounded excited now. "He's the only person who could have sent that. Zel, we can _still do something._ "

Zelda held her breath as she hurried through the searches. She'd checked her email history, and sure enough someone had used her account to send Hilda a message with the name, 'Sonya Driscoll.' She had a name. _Full name_. With it she could narrow done her search, potentially find out where Sonya lives, and then… and then…

The hopeful smile from Zelda's lips vanished when she saw the unmistakable photograph of the woman who she'd encountered at the alley a few days ago. Below the picture was the name "Sonya Driscoll," lending further proof that this was, indeed, the person she was looking for. However, there was one thing about Sonya that she hadn't expected, and Hilda mirrored her thoughts.

"Oh Farore. Zel, Sonya is - "

"Upcoming president of Nindoten," Zelda finished weakly as she looked at the captions paired with the photographs of Sonya. "That's her." There were a few news reports about the untimely suicide of the prior president, and that Sonya had been chosen to take over in his stead. She shuddered when she remembered what Veran had been able to do, and she couldn't help but wonder if this recent ascent in position had been an orchestration, rather than through a rather timely accident.

Sonya was a visible public figure. While Zelda now knew exactly where she worked, and with a bit of searching could probably figure out where she lived, the fact that she wasn't just some random person in Hyrule City presented some problems. What could a simple anthropology student do to get access to Sonya's home or workspace to find Vaati again? And if Sonya got hurt in the middle of all of this…? There had to be something she could do to get Vaati back, but what…?

Not only that, but even in the event that Zelda somehow _did_ manage to get Vaati back, with Sonya and Veran heading the company that developed Asphodel, the only place where Vaati had been able to manifest as a person, there was a chance that Zelda could never meet Vaati in Asphodel ever again. It would be too dangerous, with Sonya and Veran both having access to the main server of the game.

What could she do? _What could she do?_

"Zel? Zel, you still there?"

Zelda blinked. She shook her head, trying to regain her focus. "Y-yeah." Then, her expression hardened, and she added, "Hilda, I have to get Vaati back."

"We sure do."

Zelda almost nodded in agreement, until she realized just what Hilda had said. "Wait, we?" Her head jerked back down to the SS, her eyebrows arching.

"Look, Vaati's kind of a jerk but I'm your friend. I'm just as part of this as you are," Hilda said with an audible huff. "Hey Zel?"

Zelda recognized that tone. It was the stubborn tone Hilda used when she was determined to do something, one way or another.

"I have to go somewhere for a bit. I have to hang up real quick, but we'll talk more later, okay?"

From the call, Zelda could hear something crackle in the background, most likely wind rushing through the mic on Hilda's SS. Hilda was outside, now, and from the sudden shortness of her breath, it sounded like she was running somewhere quickly.

"Hilda?"

"I'll call you back. Don't get in trouble until I do - "

 _I think I should say the same to you,_ Zelda thought. She had a bad feeling that Hilda was about to do something… impulsive.

"But one thing," Hilda continued, and Zelda could just imagine a small, mischievous smirk on her friend's face. "Make sure you keep your Saturday night open this week."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Saturday night.

Zelda didn't usually go out during the weekend nights, but today she found herself standing outside the door to Hilda's studio apartment. She was already nervous, knowing what they were about to do, and she tried her best to quiet the rising panic in her chest that told her to go home and think of a better way to rescue Vaati. Yes, this was, according to Hilda, a rescue mission. They were apparently going to sneak into the Nindoten company headquarters tonight to see if they could find anything with regards to Vaati in Sonya's office. Zelda didn't think it was the wisest idea, but Hilda had managed to convince her, somehow. That was the thing with Hilda; when Hilda wanted something, she couldn't be stopped, and tonight, Hilda wanted the both of them to break into Nindoten.

Zelda hadn't known about this 'idea' until a day ago, and by then Hilda had done all of the legwork on making note of entrances, possible escape routes, guard schedules, and even the floorplan of the first five floors. According to Hilda, the plan was to sneak in late at night on a weekend when there would be fewer people around, to get to the upper executive floors, and, well, to be honest the plan became vague from there. The goal was to find something that would either tell them about Vaati or Veran, about Caph, about Vaati's location, or even Vaati himself. The plan was too imprecise for Zelda to feel comfortable, but it was better than doing _nothing_. Vaati had been missing for over four days, and the more time passed without any word from him, the more nervous she felt.

They had to _try_.

"Zel! Just in time." The door swung open and Hilda ushered Zelda inside enthusiastically. "Did you bring the contact lenses you said you will?"

"Uh." Zelda stared at her friend who had put aside her usual, trendy, chic attire and was smothered by an oversized black hoodie emblazoned with a blue eye symbol of Sheikah Systems. She was also wearing baggy, dark grey sweatpants comfortable to move around in, and there was a black bandana around her neck. Red eyes, rather than the normal dark brown peered at her from beneath the rim of the baseball cap propped on her head. "I uh…"

"Oh good, you did!," Hilda grinned as she led them both towards the living-dining area of the apartment. She waved a hand at the sofa, indicating to Zelda to have a seat, while she hurried off and disappeared over by her closet.

Zelda nodded, slightly puzzled. She was indeed wearing her red contacts that Hilda had requested she wear, earlier. The two of them had gotten red lenses for costumes for Halloween, and for tonight their purpose was to hide their real eye color. It… made sense, but Zelda also suspected Hilda to have another motivation for wanting to revive the red lenses.

"Put this on."

A pile of clothes landed atop Zelda's head, burying her. When she dug herself out, she found that she was holding on to another baggy hoodie, white and blue this time and printed with the same Sheikah symbol in red as the one Hilda was wearing. There was also a white bandana, and a white baseball cap, and some grey sweats.

"They're my brother's," Hilda explained when Zelda looked at her questioningly, "I stole some of his nerdy Sheikah Systems hoodies - they should be baggy enough to hide some of our profile. Wear the cap so that it shades your face."

"I still can't believe we're doing this," Zelda breathed as she changed out of her jacket and pulled over the white sweatshirt. As she grabbed the baseball cap, she felt a tug along her hair, and then she sensed her ponytail loosening around her shoulders. When she tried to turn around, Hilda bobbled it right back.

"Let me braid it. You always have a pony tail, Zel. We have to change it up."

Zelda obliged, though she still sounded confused. "Okay?"

She slipped on the much less movement restricting sweatpants that Hilda had tossed at her earlier, and as Hilda brushed her hair back into a thick braid, she rehearsed what they had planned to do. _Outer wall, climb over it and drop in, somehow pass through the access doors, find the maintenance stairs…_

"All done!"

A mirror was shoved in front of Zelda's face, and for a moment she was surprised to see a face she recognized elsewhere reflected back at her. She almost looked just like -

"Feeling braver, Sheik?" Hilda giggled. With a playful flick of her finger, she pulled up the bandana resting around Zelda's neck so that it rested just below the bridge of her nose. Then, she tugged at her own bandana, covering her grin as well. "What we're about to do is nothing compared to the things we get up to in Asphodel, yeah?"

"You just wanted to see real life Sheik," Zelda snorted, but she couldn't help laugh a little. It was true… she _did_ feel braver. Like in Asphodel, she didn't have to face her burdens alone. She had friends who could help her. Zelda reached for her pocket and attached the clip on camera to her collar, just in case they actually did manage to find Vaati tonight. Then she, stood up and took a deep breath, fingering the edge of the bandana that covered her face.

"I might have had that motive," Hilda admitted. She flipped aside her own braided hair, and then she sidled up to Zelda with the small handheld mirror. She held it out in front of them so that they could see each other's reflection; they appeared almost exactly alike, one light one dark. "I always kind of wanted to be a rogue," Hilda laughed as she looked at their reflection in the mirror. "You ready, Sheik?"

Despite her uneasiness about the whole thing earlier, Zelda couldn't help but smile back.

"Let's go get Vaati."


	11. Convergence

**Chapter 11: Convergence**

The void was very much a cage, despite its infinite nature. At least, that's what Vaati had always assumed in his years trapped within the Four Sword. It wasn't as though he could explore it, for it was more like floating in an endless expanse, unable to affect it or be affected by it. He assumed it was dark, like closing your eyes and drifting in and out of semi-consciousness, but some memories insisted that it had been a vast nothing of white. Sometimes he remembered being able to move his arms, a panicked flail in a brief lapse of lucidity, but other times he felt like he hadn't even been in a body at that point… more like drifting away as simply consciousness without form. The passage of time had been impossible to tell; a mercy, perhaps, for if he'd had any sense of time it surely would have broken his mind. Assuming… that it hadn't done so already. Would a broken mind recognize its own condition?

The first few hours (or, perhaps it was days? Years? The passage of time had been impossible to tell) after imprisonment was almost always followed by blinding rage. Rage, generally, at the fact that he'd been foiled, but subsequent imprisonments went beyond that. On some level he knew, _knew_ that he'd always made the same mistakes which led him to the same outcomes; the same mistakes that trapped him in the torturous cycle. He would vow in the early hours of imprisonment that next time, _next time,_ he would not make the mistake of not finishing the goddesses' chosen ones alive, and to immediately destroy them the first chance he had.

Eventually the fire burned itself out to embers. Of course the wrath was ever present and always there, something that was an emotion of comfortable familiarity while the void threatened to steal away his sanity. However, no fires burn bright forever, and as fire became embers he would sometimes feel the cold weight of…

Loneliness?

He would never admit it, of course. He disliked people. Disliked socializing. Everything he'd ever accomplished he'd done on his own, and people were more often obstacles than things that enhanced his life. Tools, surely, but nothing he sought out as comfort. However, on some level, he could recognize the cold hand of isolation reaching for him through the darkness, wrapping its fingers around his neck while he gasped for air. Silly imagery, to be quite honest, since he wasn't even sure if he'd ever taken a breath within the void of the sword.

And so, he blamed this cold hand that snuffed out the fire for his continued mistakes. He would be the last to say that loneliness was the reason why he'd never killed the princess and the hero at the start, even if he'd had opportunities to do so. At the same time, if he could be honest with himself for just a few minutes, he wouldn't be able to _deny_ it to be the reason either. Beneath his misanthropy there was a spark of excitement to see them _react_ to him. There was a certain kind of rush at being able to, for the first time in centuries after being freed from the sword, to have something, someone, see him and respond to his pokes and prods. And more so, as much as he despised those favored by the goddesses, he couldn't deny that they were the one thing that was familiar to him despite the years he'd missed.

Even now, Zelda was the one link to the past, the one thing in this unfamiliar world that remained familiar to him. She was familiar, and yet… different. There were many things he'd assumed about her, thinking her to be the same as her prior incarnations, but still she managed to surprise him. Small things, like sending him small messages daily even when he'd made no effort to converse, or those times when she would leave him at peace to his own thoughts in Asphodel, but knew when to keep him on his toes with small witty jabs of her own. When she would challenge him at his most cynical, and almost convince him with her optimism - an optimism which he'd once had himself, though he'd forgotten it after years of imprisonment.

He found himself… talking _with_ her, as opposed to at her. He disliked people, but it was strangely refreshing. No doubt the feeling was just an artifact of having been trapped in isolation for years. At least, that was how he rationalized it.

And in a different yet similar way in how he found Zelda familiar, he found the same in Veran. Of course he considered her infuriating and wanted nothing more than to destroy her for what she had done to himself and Zelda, but during their conversations he'd found himself listening, despite everything. She was someone like him, a person from the past, displaced in time; punished and imprisoned for trying to mold an unsatisfactory world with her own power.

What had perhaps struck him the most was how, behind the image of a strong, confident sorceress, was someone worn and tired. It was a story that he was intimately acquainted with - that where she'd once been ambitious (and on some level still was), in truth she now only sought some semblance of stability. Like him, she wanted only security that she would not be ensnared in another thousand year cycle of imprisonment.

He didn't put it past her to be plotting something greater, but he knew truth when she'd looked at him with that knowing smile full of fatigue. Not even the best manipulator could have faked that smile.

Apparently she'd worked with Ganondorf for some time. That was as much as she would say about him, aside from a small comment about how she thought him a fool. A lie, Vaati had judged, from the way she'd almost spoken the word with pity. And this, too, he could almost sympathize with. He knew Ganondorf briefly, and knew exactly why she'd used the word she did, with that particular poignancy. The man _had_ been a fool, fruitlessly fighting a fight with all of the odds stacked against him. It had almost been like watching a more reckless image of himself, if that were even possible.

They were all just so very tired…

According to Veran, Ganondorf was here, too. Lingering in Asphodel, perhaps, though Vaati had yet to see him. Veran herself had no plans of meeting him yet, and waved a dismissive hand when he'd asked her why. Vaati thought he knew, however. If her past was anything like his, there was undoubtedly some resentment in her relationship with the gerudo. Ganondorf had been explosive and unpredictable, a man with the overwhelming force of a desert boar but the cunning of a hunting wolf. Vaati never once counted on loyalty from the man, and there had been an almost mutual understanding that they would betray each other if it ever came down to it. It was an honesty that had been refreshing, in a way, during the brief time they had forged something of an alliance. As he was sure was the case with Veran, whatever resentment he had for Ganondorf wasn't necessarily… negative. It was more like a grudging annoyance paired with respect. He would never let his gaze leave the demon king too long lest he be stabbed in the back, but he respected the man.

That was more than he could say for most.

And he respected Veran on some level, too, especially when she'd told him of her plans to rid the god, Caph. She didn't know much more about them from that which Vaati already knew, and she had the workings of a vague plan to get rid of them. Her motivations for wanting them gone were simple: she didn't like them. At this, Vaati had managed a laugh.

Four days had passed since the conversation in Asphodel's alpha space. He was currently surrounded in darkness, his SS thrown into a combination safe and plugged into a charger. He wasn't entirely sure why Veran hadn't simply allowed his SS to be drained of battery. Mercy, he wondered? Only those who were like them could understand what it was like to be returned to the void once again.

Though the conversation with Veran had been surprisingly, for lack of a better term, cordial, it had ended with a mutual acknowledgement that they would eventually destroy each other. Neither of them liked to lose, and at some point one would have to rid the other for no bigger reason than the fact that their pride as sorcerers demanded it. There had been no hatred by the end, no. Instead it had been a silent agreement between two rivals.

It was… strange. The first time he'd woken in this era, trapped in some kind of machine without any of his former powers left, he'd been convinced that this time… _this time_ was the worst iteration yet. On the surface, this was still true: he was furious about what he had been reduced to, and words didn't do justice to the frustration of his own limitations that gnawed at him every day. But as much as he had lost, there was something new that he hadn't experienced since… well, never.

This time, it was not a fight against the champion of the goddesses, and so he was not so blinded by his own wrath. It was perhaps more appropriate to call it an elaborate game of Jongma, a game of wits and strategy that had been popular with the Gerudo long ago, with several formidable players maneuvering their pieces to win above all others. There was something about it that was more compelling than simply lashing out at the world he despised.

He was going to win, there was no other outcome. Of course, his situation now was rather… troublesome. As loathe as he was to admit it, Veran had him outmatched, mostly because of her ability with Sonya (something he still couldn't figure out). He wasn't exactly helpless right now, _absolutely not_ , but he still needed someone from the outside to help him get to Veran herself. He'd mulled over the concept of asking for 'help' for hours before he'd (grudgingly) admitted that this was not a situation he could fix on his own.

He… needed Zelda. The fact that he needed to rely on someone made bile rise in his metaphorical throat, but he forced the feeling down. _Veran_ was using Sonya, and so he justified that it wasn't so much that he needed Zelda's help but that he was… going to use every advantage he could. It had taken him at least two full days to get up the nerve to send messages to Zelda's friend, Hilda, in the hopes that Zelda would receive the message containing Sonya's full name. It was the most he could learn of Veran's partner, but Zelda was resourceful. At the very least, that was something all of her incarnations seemed to have in common.

She _would_ come help, wouldn't she?

Would she?

In the darkness of the locked safe, the status light flickered a nervous yellow before it gradually dimmed. Uncertainty chipped away at his usual confidence, and he found his thoughts stilled when an emotion he'd buried away from those damned days as a Minish resurfaced: Insecurity. For once he found himself in a situation where his outcome depended entirely on the action of another person. There was nothing he could except to sit and wait, and… and _trust_ someone.

Malignant thoughts began to surface, and the device itself lost all of its glow to the point that an onlooker would not have known that it was powered on.

She wouldn't come to help, would she…

She had no reason to. She'd called him a ' _friend,_ ' but those words were simple to say, and no doubt empty promises from someone with that naïve optimism he so despised. There was nothing she would gain from putting herself in harm's way to come for him, and it wasn't as though he had ever shown her such affection that she would misinterpret him of being fond of her in any way.

No. No, she would not come for him. It would be foolish of her to do so, and thus it was foolish of him to assume she would help him. He was but a glorified navigation program in this era, and easily replaceable. She wasn't a friend, she wasn't his _anything._

Of course. _Of course_ it had been misguided of him to think that this time things would be different. It would never be different. He had always achieved goals with his own power, for there was no one he could depend on more than himself. He felt like an idiot for having sent the messages of plea to Hilda, for what more would they achieve other than to make himself look worthy of pity?

What could he do? _What could he do?_

Red light flared up again as anger resurfaced.

 _Caph_.

Dare he do it?

He hated nothing more than the idea of giving in to a god's whims, but what they had offered him had been everything sensible. He would have a real body, and all of his full abilities at his disposal. In addition, he would have the one power that had alluded him for so long: a piece of the Triforce. If he took Caph's offer, he may very well become the most powerful he'd ever been…

He wavered for a few seconds, his resolve breaking when the memory of Zelda, smiling bashfully as she hurriedly fumbled over her words after her declaration of friendship, surfaced in his mind. He remembered the autumn wind brushing her side-swept bangs, the hint of a blush through both the air's nip and embarrassment rising along her cheeks, and the small tug of her jacket's collar in an attempt to hide her face much like her habit with Sheik in Asphodel. And then darkness clouded daylight, locking her away in the depths of the void much like him.

The image shattered as his resolve steeled. He was nothing to her. She was _nothing to him_. He would not repeat the mistakes of the past again. Not this time. _Not ever._

"Caph," he spoke aloud. Then, he repeated more sharply, _"Caph!_ "

Light.

Bright light filled the safe where his SS was kept, and for a brief moment Vaati was startled. Though he had asked for the god, a part of him hadn't actually believed that simply calling for them out loud would be enough to summon them. His view was jostled as someone reached for the SS and wrenched it off of its charger.

And then his processes slowed.

"You're…"

The one holding his device was not Caph, but the half-gerudo woman who'd been with Veran. Sonya looked nothing like her composed, confident self that she'd been when she'd cornered Vaati and Zelda a few days ago. Instead, her hair was pushed behind her in a mess, and her yellow eyes wandered in a panic. _Fear_.

But of what?

"Sonya! Calm down, I can't use my powers if you're panicking-"

"Veran, who… what is that thing?"

_What thing?_

There was a frustrating struggle for Vaati to try and see what it was that Sonya was talking about. She was sprinting as fast as she could out of the office where he'd been kept, and his view was blurred from her swinging his SS through the air as she ran. Just as she made it out the door, he caught sight of a silhouette he recognized: a shadow of a youthful god, wired and augmented with enough contraptions that it was almost difficult to tell that they'd once been anything other than a machine.

It was Caph.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Zelda wasn't too fond of the city at night. It wasn't that it was unsafe - the city was one of the safest in the region, boasting a low crime rate. It was more that it seemed to come alive, like a nocturnal creature that roared awake as soon as the sun set. Some people came to the city for this very reason, but for her, the bustle was overwhelming. The constant ambient bustle almost seemed to tell her to hurry, though she was never sure what she was supposed to hurry _to_.

And tonight, the florescent lights and the buzz of people making their way to the inner city to enjoy the night life compounded her anxiety. She needed to hurry. For once, she knew where she needed to hurry to, but the city seemed only to tell her that no matter how fast she ran she would not be fast enough.

The soft 'ding' of the SpeedRail brought her out of her repeated rehearsal of what they were about to do. She felt a small bead of sweat roll off her nose, dropping onto the white bandana that was wrapped around her neck. She tugged at her baseball cap a little more over her eyes, as though the people busy in conversation next to her would somehow recognize her as a crook. She'd never done anything illegal in her life until this past week, and the idea of coming to a head with law enforcement in a few hours should things go wrong was, well, nerve wracking.

The doors of the train slid open, and there was a jostle of shoulders as people pushed their way towards them or tried to make way for more people coming inside. Zelda felt a tug on her hand, and she saw Hilda shoot her a small look that seemed to warn her not to look so guilty, followed by a flash of a smile that Zelda had seen so often when they were about to raid a high level dungeon that was clearly a death sentence. Zelda chuckled, both out of nerves and comfort in familiarity, and out of habit she returned a flat frown she so often did whenever Sheik went along with Hilda's bad ideas.

They left the station, following the navigation marker on Hilda's SS: a small custom rabit-shaped dot indicating their location relative to their destination on the map. The ambient noise of the city gradually stilled to a distant murmur as they approached the more commercial part of the city where Nindoten was located. Busy during the daylight hours on the weekdays, it was fairly quiet on this side of the city during the weekend night. Compared to the earlier roar that seemed to yell at her to hurry, the stillness of the city here was like the pause following a held breath.

Hilda and Zelda slowed as the imposing skyscraper of Nindoten came into view. The main tower was surrounded by a fairly wide lot of neatly trimmed grass with trees planted with careful landscaping, which in turn was closed off by a tall white wall. Most of the lights were off, save for the dim glow of the security lights. Before they got too close, Hilda signaled Zelda to slow down and then pulled up her bandana over her nose while signaling Zelda to do the same. She held out a fist. "Ready?" she giggled.

Zelda took a deep breath. Honestly, no. No, she wasn't. But she had to be. "Ready," she said, and bumped fists before approaching the building's perimeter.

They'd vaguely planned it through, and they'd already scoped out the outside of the building the day before to be somewhat familiar with what they would be dealing with tonight. Wordlessly they made their way around the perimeter, moving quickly while looking over their shoulders from time to time to make sure no one was going to catch them by surprise. Eventually they came across a young maple growing next to the wall: a tree that had somehow escaped the landscaper.

Hilda took a few minutes studying the tree's branches, checking the distance between its branches and the wall. Then, she stretched her arms briefly, rolled up the sleeves of her black baggy sweatshirt, and with surprising nimbleness like she'd done this dozens of times before, scampered up the tree and leapt onto the wall.

Zelda raised a brow, surprised and impressed, while Hilda simply winked back at her and disappeared down the other side. Not a while longer, a thick rope was tossed over its side for Zelda to climb up it. When Zelda dropped down to join Hilda on the other side, she gave her a questioning glance, to which Hilda chuckled.

"I got grounded a lot," she explained, "So I used to sneak out my window. Got real good at jumping into trees from my window and making my way up and down 'em." Hilda quickly wrapped the rope back into a loop and stuffed it in her backpack. "Pretty useful skill whenever I locked myself out of places, too. Don't really have to do that anymore since I know how to pick locks now," she laughed.

Zelda, a little less nervous now that she'd come to terms with the fact that they'd come too far to turn back, strode briskly past Hilda to speed her up towards the building. Though the premises appeared to be fairly empty, now was not the time to dawdle with idle conversation. "The security cameras would have most likely seen us," she said, "we should move quick-"

Zelda froze, Hilda nearly bumping into her from her sudden stop. Her sharp eyes had caught sight of a silhouette in the corner of her vision, and she immediately yanked Hilda forward and dove behind a nearby bush. She urgently hushed Hilda who'd let out a small yelp in surprise, and then cautiously peered through the leaves to take a better look at what she'd seen.

A person. Most likely a guard, at this hour. Zelda and Hilda held their breaths as they watched the guard about thirty feet away, waiting for them to move out of sight so that they could leave their hiding spot. They waited there for ten minutes, before Zelda began to suspect that not all was as it seemed with the guard. The guard hadn't moved an inch during the entire time they were waiting for them to move out of sight, and their stillness almost seemed… unnatural. Even if the guard were standing still and not making rounds, there should have been some kind of indication of life: a subtle shift in weight, clothes being ruffled by the breeze. Zelda squinted at the silhouette of the guard for another five minutes, before she finally took a deep breath, and quietly stepped out of the safety of the bushes. She ignored Hilda's hisses asking her what she was doing, and she tiptoed towards the strangely lifeless guard while she kept close to the walls. Her eyes widened, and she quickened her pace when she realized what it was that she was looking at. "He's… frozen?"

Indeed the guard appeared to be mid-step, but he was no longer moving. It was as though time had completely stopped for him, and every part of him, including pieces of hair that should have fallen with gravity and the open eyes that remained unblinking, was static.

"What in Din," Hilda whispered as she came running to join her.

Zelda could tell just what Hilda was thinking as they looked at the petrified man in confused horror. _Magic_. Zelda had somewhat come to terms with it after her encounter with Veran, but this was the first time Hilda had happened upon anything like this. She could almost see her friend's head shake slightly like she was trying to convince herself that what she was seeing wasn't real.

"You think Veran did this?" Hilda said between her teeth. She didn't keep her eyes off of the guard, fearful that he would jump back to life in any given moment. "What happened to him?"

Zelda shook her head. Veran was the only person she knew who would be able to do something like this, but why would she freeze the very guards that patrolled her place? But if it were someone other than Veran who'd done this…

_Who could it be?_

She blinked, her gaze landing on the key ring hanging from the guard's belt. Cards with access codes dangled from the ring. Her expression hardened, and the last hints of nervous uncertainty completely vanished from her face as she reached forward for the guard's key ring.

"Zel? _!_ " Hilda gasped, raising her hand, worried that the guard would wake if they touched him or, worse, that her friend would also become frozen. However, neither of those things happened, and Zelda stood determined with the card keys in her hands. Hilda's breath caught in her throat when Zelda, no, _Sheik_ , gazed back with that same fearless expression she'd seen so many times in Asphodel.

"Let's go," Zelda said quietly, words cutting through the air with sharp precision. With firm strides she moved purposely forward to the main gates leading inside the skyscraper, the access keys tight in her grip.

This was bad. The guard petrified with magic indicated that whatever awaited them inside the Nindoten headquarters was going to be bad, but she was all the more determined to push forward because of it. She somehow had the feeling that Vaati was somewhere inside, and that they were on the right track. She was going to save him. She had to.

_I said I'll be there for you. Let me show you what I meant by it._

She made it to the tall glass doors of the headquarters, her steps bold and confident. She flipped quickly through the card keys, trying each one on the identity scanner until she finally came across the right one. The light blinked green, and there was a short hiss as the locks released from the door.

_Wait for me Vaati. Please._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thank you for reading this far! :)


	12. Someone to Turn To

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... So I definitely didn't just pick the chapter title by random shuffling a playlist and picking a lyric line. Definitely did not do that. (As always my main hangout is ff.net and this story will be better updated there, but I will continue updating the story on AO3 for people who prefer reading over here :). Thank you so much!)

Her footsteps were too loud on the polished floors of the Nindoten headquarters, the patter of her footsteps echoing in the large entrance hall. She glimpsed at the reflection of her masked face on the silver abstract statue in the middle of the room, before she hurriedly made her way up the curved stairs. Red eyed rogue. In this world, she was Zelda Nohansen, nineteen years old in college, but tonight she clung to the fact that she was Sheik, too. She needed his reckless bravery, tonight more than ever.

With Hilda following closely behind her, Zelda quickly made her way to the elevators at the top of the stairs. They weren't entirely sure what floor Sonya's office would be located, but they had agreed to start with the upper floors first, as that was where the executive rooms were generally found. Judging from the petrified guard that they had encountered outside, Zelda had a feeling that they would find some clue on where they needed to go relatively quickly…

Beside the elevator buttons, Zelda noted an access pad similar to the one that had been locking the main doors of the building, and she began to swipe across all the card keys she'd stolen from the guard in the hopes of finding one that would unlock access. There was a faint dingle with one of them, but when she went to press the elevator button, she swore under her breath.

"What happened?" Hilda asked. She pulled her guarded gaze away from the possible places they could be jumped, and glanced worriedly at Zelda who was studying the access pad with frustration.

"It's asking me for a password since it's after hours," Zelda muttered, "We don't have time for this."

"There has to be some maintenance stairs that would take us to the top floors, come on. I think I saw one in the corner, back on the first floor to the right of the entrance."

Even before they reached the maintenance door tucked away in a corner to the side of the bottom of the stairwell, Hilda had already pulled out a small, flat metal box from her backpack. She flipped it open, and with deft fingers took out a thin lock-picking tool and a tension wench. "Thank you, dad, for grounding me repeatedly for silly things," Hilda snorted as she knelt down in front of the lock to pick it. "My brother thinks lock picking is a useless skill, since old fashioned locks are being replaced. Shows what he knows."

While Hilda went to work on the lock, Zelda kept an eye out for any people. It was unsettlingly quiet and the night was still; she couldn't help but be reminded of the guard outside who was frozen, as though the flow of time had abandoned him. It begged the question, who had done such a thing, and why? Her first thought was that someone had wanted the guards out of the way. _But then that means another trespasser is here, tonight, and a magic user no less. Perhaps a powerful one, if they could stop time…_

What were they doing here? What were they after? Did it have something to do with Vaati?

_Then we're on the right track._

_But we also need to hurry._

"Hehehe, I did it," Hilda celebrated quietly as the lock opened with a soft click. She slipped her tools back into her bag and stretched her knees. She grinned proudly as she flicked the brim of her black baseball cap. "Aren't you glad you have a friend like m-"

Hilda never got to finish her sentence, because without warning, a tremor ran across the walls of the building followed by a distant rumble that almost sounded like an explosion. Zelda and Hilda instinctively ducked behind the cover of the now open door to the maintenance stairs. There was another rumble, and then frantic footsteps could be heard dashing closer along the upper floor where the elevators had been. Seconds later, they saw the blur of red-brown locks as a woman threw herself forward, ducking just in time to avoid something like a canon-shot of pure energy. The shot instead hit a wall on the far side, causing an explosion of smoke and debris.

Zelda instinctively threw out her hands to shield them both, while Hilda held back a gasp at the sight. The two of them were no strangers to seeing explosions and energy charges in Asphodel, but seeing it close, outside of virtual reality, was a different experience altogether. It wasn't even a large explosion, but the force of it that sent vibrations through the building foundation, the spray of smoke and their heart rate rising from adrenaline – the combination of those little details made this so much more raw than anything they'd experienced in Asphodel. This was dangerous.

Zelda froze as her eyes briefly locked on with Sonya's, the woman's formerly confident yellow gaze now full of fear. Despite Zelda's disguise, there was an unmistakable moment of recognition between the two, and Zelda saw a faint twitch of Sonya's brows as she seemed to quickly assess her situation. Then, before words could be exchanged, the woman whipped her head around towards her pursuer and she scrambled to her feet. It was then that Zelda noticed how frayed Sonya appeared to be. The collar of her shirt had become partly unbuttoned in her rush, and patches of red stained the white cotton where she'd suffered injuries. She had long since abandoned her heels, and her black tights were riddled with holes near her heels and ankles where they'd been torn. Seeing the woman who had so easily bested her and Vaati in such a condition sent goosebumps running along Zelda's skin.

" _Take him and run!"_ Sonya shouted, breaking Zelda out of her moment of hesitation. Sonya ran as fast as she could towards the stairs, throwing at Zelda a familiar teal SS with the desperation of someone who knew that they weren't going to escape whatever it was that was chasing them. Almost immediately, Zelda saw a figure flash into view next to the woman. To her horror, she saw Sonya throw up her arms in defense, only to be slammed against the elevator doors by someone holding her by her throat.

But Zelda was only partly focused on what was happening with Sonya, or _who_ was attacking her. No, her gaze had become sharp and focused on the object that had been thrown her way. Forcing her legs to move, she broke cover, sprinting towards the SS that arched through the air. She dove, catching it firmly between her fingers before it hit the floor, and her shoulders crashed and skidded across the tiles when she fell. She clutched the device close to her chest until she was sure that it was safe.

"Vaati! _Are you there?"_ She held her breath, eyes frantically searching the screen for some indication of the sorcerer's presence as she turned the display on. And then, to her relief, she saw the status light flicker, a flash of red before subsiding into a pensive, surprised blue.

She could almost imagine him looking at her, a short blink of surprise, before he answered with a tentative murmur. He sounded genuinely surprised, like he couldn't trust himself that she was real. "… So you came for me," he said quietly.

"Of course I did, silly," she returned a small laugh, somewhat shaky from the remains of her nerves that she would find him gone, along with relief at finding that he was alright.

The status light froze, an unflickering blue like he was staring at her, and then slowly faded to black like he was… agitated by her words. Seconds later, however, the light flared back up to a frightening red, and Zelda's breath stopped when she saw someone standing behind her from the reflection of the SS.

She whirled around, coming face to face with an individual whose presence immediately filled her with unease. They had a childish visage, contrasted by aging grey hair that fell over eyes that were too hardened to be considered young. Crude machinery of black metal melded into skin, like they had been grafted on by unskilled hands belonging to someone curious to experiment. However, what unsettled her the most was the cloak wrapped across the shoulders; looking at it was like looking into the deep, cold indigo of the night sky in winter. It carried stars.

This person couldn't be human. They were bigger than that. Zelda had felt small fighting against Vaati in Asphodel, but this presence was so much more…

She held Vaati closer to her.

"And here I was about to intervene to make Veran let you go," Caph huffed, tapping a finger against their arm irritably. Behind them, Sonya was on the floor where she'd been thrown, rubbing her neck and coughing for breath. The god ignored her, instead eyeing Zelda with mild curiosity. "That appears to have been unnecessary, though I suppose it is unclear if your rescue party would have succeeded in saving you."

Zelda slowly pushed herself up onto her feet and cautiously took a step away. She wanted to turn her head to see what Hilda was doing, but she was also afraid of letting her gaze leave the one who disquieted her by simply standing in front of her.

 _Let who go?_ Her brows knotted together at their words. _Are they talking to Vaati…?_

She was acutely aware of the device in her hands, and she recalled the name Vaati and Veran had exchanged before. _Is this Caph?_ she had mentioned something about Caph's offer, had accused Veran of taking Caph's offer. Vaati had spoken the name with venom in his voice.

_We need to run._

Caph cocked their head slightly, acknowledging Sonya who had wobbled back to her feet, her eyes no longer amber but a terrible red. The god clicked their tongue disapprovingly, making no indication of being concerned that a dark shadow was gathering around Veran's ankles. "I'm not sure what you had in mind, Veran, but I would have been cross if you destroyed one of my investments."

The response was a sharp hiss, and Zelda watched in horror as the possessed woman transformed, tripling in size and sprouting glassy wings and the six segmented legs of an insect. Within seconds the giant wasp struck forwards towards the god, aiming to impale them with its stinger.

Caph leapt into the air, sliding past the attack with ease, and then casually extended their right arm towards the wasp. The gears and lights embedded along their forearm whirred, clacking as the machinery readjusted to form a large canon. There was a flash of lightning blue, and a powerful blast shrieked forwards towards Veran. It hit the sorceress between her wings, and the wasp hit the floor with a gruesome slam.

Zelda ran back, reuniting with Hilda who was still watching, petrified, from behind the maintenance access door. She grabbed her friend's arm and flashed her a small smile to which Hilda responded gratefully with a somewhat weak one of her own; a silent promise that they would get out together. However, this was easier said than done. Veran and Caph were fighting directly in front of the building exit, and they would have to get past them if they wanted to leave. The two watched from the cover of the door as Caph floated down to the wasp whose legs were twitching from the shock of the attack.

The god circled their wrist and made a grabbing motion with their left hand. The wasp was lifted into the air by its neck, synchronized with the movement. The creature shuddered, and with one last spasm it returned back to the form of a badly beaten Sonya. She grasped at her neck where she was being held, and she glared back with Veran's eyes.

Caph sounded unimpressed. "I generally have a non-intervention policy," they reflected on this for a second, and then repeated with a smirk, " _generally_. But since you should not even exist like this in the first place, I take no issue in destroying you if you prove to be more trouble than you're worth." Then, they added with a sharp glint in their eye, "Clear?"

The corners of Veran's lips twitched to a grimace, and she continued to glare at the god for several long seconds. Then, recognizing she had no chance to win the way she was now, the grimace curled into the most insincere of smiles. "I just wanted… a chat with… a kindred spirit…" she gasped between Caph's hold. She made an exclamation when she was dropped unceremoniously from the air. Pushing herself up onto her elbows, she rubbed her neck weakly with arms suffering from bruises and burns. "Your project's safe, so why don't you go back to whatever plane of existence you belong in?"

The god considered the sorceress's words for a while, as though deciding what to do about her. Then, their canon arm shifted and reorganized back into a hand-like shape, and they lounged in the air with their feet beginning to swing childishly. They nonchalantly studied the gold bearings of their augmented knuckles. "I suggest you do not give me reason to believe that you will damage the sorcerer before I am done with him. I already lost two, I don't want to lose a third."

Veran tottered back on her feet. She seemed to cock her head at Caph's comment regarding 'losing two,' but decided against saying anything. With a bow that was undoubtedly put-on but was impressively convincing, she smiled back, "You have my most loyal promise."

This at least seemed to appease the god, who appeared more relaxed now and was thoughtfully nibbling the edge of their star sprinkled cloak. "Since I am here, have you reconsidered my offer?" they asked. Their tone was less hostile, though there was an edge of impatience buried beneath like a child being told to wait for their birthday present.

"I dislike the pushy ones, darling."

There was a hint of a pout before they finally conceded, "Very well." Caph continued pompously, "You will change your mind soon enough." They swung themselves around, hovering forwards and dropping in front of the other two trespassers who'd been in the middle of trying to sneak back out the door while the sorceress and the god were having a conversation. Caph ignored the spooked teens, instead addressing the SS in Zelda's hand. "Wind mage, I believe you had other business with me?"

At this, Zelda frowned, though her gaze broke away from the god to glance nervously down at the SS in her hand. She still didn't know what the connection between Vaati, Caph, and Veran was, and she couldn't shake the feeling that whatever it was that Vaati was keeping to himself was dangerous. Normally she would have run, or even snapped back at Caph, but instead she waited for Vaati to answer with a sinking feeling in her stomach.

Vaati remained quiet for several seconds, the status light black like he'd withdrawn into his mind. "… No," he said eventually. However, Zelda's frown deepened when her ears caught the hint of discomfort in his voice at the question, and she saw Caph's eyes narrow slightly with skepticism.

The god brought a hand up to their chin, rubbing a finger along it deliberately. "Did you not call for me because you wished to be outside? To be real and alive, as before?"

"This is over. Leave," Vaati snapped, clearly not eager to continue the conversation.

Lips pulled into a flat line, Caph paused and stared at Vaati with a disbelieving expression. Then, they rolled their eyes, their elbows loosening as they tossed their arms in disgust. "I am honestly starting to feel frustration at you both," they said with a cold smile. Their fingers suddenly became tense and claw-like, betraying the impatient fury hidden beneath their fraudulent poise. "I offer a way to return your powers to you, as you were, before you were sealed. And Vaati, you who could once be called a _god_ ," they snorted at the word, "you are fine as you are now?"

Zelda didn't realize that she'd been fixated on Vaati, her forehead creased with crow's feet in concern, until she noticed the status light that had been glowing red had faded to an orange, and then to a blue. _Anger, fading to… what?_ She couldn't read him this time, except to know that something about what Caph had said caused him to retreat back to silence. She imagined him almost… turning his head away, like when someone had pointed something out that he couldn't completely deny.

_Turn him back into what he'd once been – a god._

Her right hand that had been holding the device fell away slightly. Caph's words confirmed the fact that Vaati was, indeed, a human trapped in a machine. It made her wonder what had happened to him to lead him here, for she'd always had a sense that he was burdened by a great and terrible weight that was his past. She could tell from the fragmented way he interacted with her like he wasn't always quite _there_ , or the way he would observe and study something like he was almost comparing it to something locked away in his memory, or the way that his personality would, without warning, flicker back to something mischievous and youthful before returning to something tired and aged, like it had been too much effort to maintain. She'd learned much about him for the few weeks together, but hearing Caph slip hints regarding his past only cemented the fact that she… barely knew him at all.

Her head jerked up when there was a sudden movement from Caph. The god, realizing that neither Vaati nor Veran were going to give them the response they wanted, had abruptly turned their heel in frustration, their cloak snapping behind them.

"Hmph! Fine," they glowered, eyes narrowing as their eyes made a sweep between Veran and Vaati. "Perhaps some urgency is required, then. I will allow one month for you to think things over, which should be plenty of time to consider what you want. If you do not accept my offer by then, a chance that I have graciously provided you despite the fact that neither of you deserve it," they added with a growl, "then I will return you to your old prisons."

The god paused, as though to wait for some kind of response from either Veran or Vaati, but both refused to reward them with a reaction. There was a disappointed dip on Caph's face, like they had hoped one of them would change their minds, before it disappeared into an ingenuine cheerful mask. "Or perhaps rather than sending you back to your prisons, it would be best if I just ended you. A mercy, right? And no one will miss you." They hopped back up into the air to drape themselves over on an invisible chair, carelessly swinging their legs again. "Think carefully."

Caph's hands glowed, and with a snap of their fingers they vanished into the air as quickly as they had come, leaving behind only the three battered humans and the two souls imprisoned within their SS devices.

There was almost a collective collapse. Shoulders lowered, backs slid against a wall and legs folded until they no longer had to support weight, and chests rose and fell with long tired sighs. Hilda, who was normally full of energy and love of adventure, appeared drained by what she'd seen, and was sitting quietly with her back resting against the building's tall glass door and her head tilted up towards the ceiling like she was slowly piecing together everything that had happened. Zelda, too, was also in a similar state, relief washing over her with knowledge that everyone was still, more or less, okay, but still a little shaken by being in the presence of someone who she was sure could end her life with a wave of their hand. She seemed to wait for her heartbeat to slow and her breathing to become more level.

And though Vaati had no physical body of his own to show visible wear, there was a reluctant sort of fatigue to his silence like he'd expended energy to speak. From his view he could only see Zelda's face, her chin lowered and her head hanging in a sort of daze. It didn't go unnoticed by him that she wore 'Sheik,' a source of strength and confidence, and that she had been determined to recklessly dive headfirst towards the enemy so that she could answer his call for help.

Shame: Was that the feeling that twisted at his gut while the camera showed him details of the darkening bags under her eyes, the tired creases barely hidden by messy blond bangs, and the anxious quiver of her lips behind the bandana rolled up by her neck? Guilt, that he'd concluded that he could not rely on her, and had been ready to reclaim control of his life by taking the offer of a creature he despised?

It was strange… normally he would have expected to be angry. He would have been absolutely enraged that someone had taken such brash and thoughtless action to help him, not only because he despised what he saw as stupidity, but also because he hated the idea of _owing_ someone. He would have been angry about his own general helplessness, and angry at the muddled opaque mess that was his confused feelings.

Instead, however, the anger was suppressed by a heavy blanket of fatigue. He was too tired for those flames, and too tired to argue with himself that it wasn't guilt that weighed down his chest.

Shame. Guilt. He'd had little faith in Zelda's attestation that she would have his back and, rather than wait for her to betray his expectations, he'd convinced himself that he would find his own way out of Veran's prison. He'd cared little that the solution he'd come to required her to suffer the cruel fate that he knew all too well. But she'd come for him as she'd promised, just as he'd been about to forsake her.

And… perhaps it was this guilt that prompted him to be the first to break the tired silence. His words were soft and barely audible, but they were loud in the echoing walls of the empty building. "I may owe you an explanation…"

Zelda stirred at his voice, and he saw her tug the edge of her bandana much like Sheik did whenever he was feeling anxious. "It's fine, I'm just… you're okay, right?" she asked, nervous relief shaking her voice. "I was so worried about you." She shook her head with a smile as well, like she was trying to reassure him that he owed her nothing. Nothing, despite how she'd done so much for him with little in return.

He was taken aback by her sincerity, and he couldn't help but betray his surprise with the status light momentarily blinking blue before fading. There was a long pause, uncertain as to how to follow such a candid expression. Vaati sighed. Then,

"… I found Lady Meow Meow."

Zelda blinked, not quite registering what she'd just heard. Then, understanding dawned on her, and a warm flush rose to her previously ashen cheeks as her face cracked into a weak smile. A weak chuckle escaped her lips, growing louder into a tired, broken laugh.

Her shoulders shook, and she covered her face with one hand while she hugged the small SS tightly with the other.


	13. Only Human

The drawn out lull from everyone collecting themselves from what had happened eventually came to an end. The most urgent threat that had been Caph had passed, but it was not quite over. Slowly Zelda's eyes cleared, and her red tinted lenses pointed towards Sonya who was limping slightly towards them. Immediately Zelda jumped up to her feet, as did Hilda behind her, and she crouched with one arm raised defensively. The older woman stopped at seeing the two trespassers become alert by her presence, and she raised both hands over her head in an attempt to appease them.

"Are you… are you two okay?" she asked.

Her question caught Zelda off-guard. This was the woman who, only a few days ago, had shown no hesitation in attacking her and had taken Vaati away from her. She reminded her of the fact. "You kidnapped Vaati," she said.

Sonya pursed her lips at the accusation. Then, before she could respond, the SS coiled around her wrist like a watch spoke on her behalf. "I will be honest and admit that it was for selfish reasons that I wanted to acquire the device that holds your precious little wind boy," Veran said, "Though Sonya dear was under the impression that she was doing you a favor."

"A _favo-"_ Zelda began heatedly, though she was cut short by the sorceress.

"You've got a dangerous man with you. I've heard of him before, and none of the stories of him were flattering." The thin border along Veran's SS lit up blue upon seeing a look of surprise pass Zelda's face. "I suppose he hasn't told you, yet?"

"And you're not?" Footsteps approached as Hilda joined them, and she stood protectively next to her friend. The small tremor along her knuckles suggested she was still somewhat shaken by what she'd seen, but her blunt snappishness was recovering. "I think we all saw you turn her into that monster."

The grimace could be heard in Veran's voice. "Hmph. It's because of judgmental brats like you that I dislike taking on those forms."

"Veran." A finger lightly tapped Veran's SS, and the status light went from orange to blue in surprise at Sonya's voice. There was a silent 'please' in the tap, and Sonya looked like she was too tired to have a drawn out argument. The poise that Zelda had seen back when she'd first met the woman was gone, and Sonya only returned them an apologetic look. "Given what happened today, I would like for all of us to talk. We are not enemies."

"Ah yes, of course we are all in agreement that we need to remove Caph as soo-"

"No, Veran." Sonya brought the screen of her SS closer to her face. "I trusted you, and I still trust you, but I need to know what's going on," she said. She nodded her head towards the other two. "They do, too. Then we can discuss what we are doing next. I've been giving you space on what you've dealt with but I think there are some important things you haven't told me yet."

At this, Veran quieted. Shock, perhaps. There was an annoyed flicker of red before the lights dimmed, fading into nothing not unlike Vaati whenever he was cornered into a conversation he didn't want to have.

"A little presumptuous of you to assume that we're suddenly going to play nice," Hilda shot, still not convinced by Sonya. "You _hurt_ my friend."

Zelda stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. "Hilda," she said quietly. It wasn't that she completely trusted Sonya herself, but she could understand a little of what the woman was saying to Veran. The hesitation to pry into Veran's life resonated with her own relationship with Vaati, and though she wanted to respect Vaati's privacy, recent developments had her wondering if she deserved to know more. She could see that Sonya was thinking the same with Veran.

"It's an open invitation," Sonya explained. "I'm not sure where to go from here myself, but," she tapped some keys on her SS, and then held it out to Zelda, showing her a phone number and email address on the screen. "Here's my contact information, just in case. If you would be open to working with us to figure out how to deal with Caph, I would like it if you can meet with me next week." She glanced at the blast markings and the minor, but real, damages from the fight with Caph tiredly. "Tonight I have a mess to clean up before the morning."

Zelda looked at the offered information on Sonya's SS, and then hesitantly raised her own. All this time Vaati had remained the silent observer, and she picked up on the fact that he wasn't immediately rejecting the suggestion like he would have if he didn't at least agree with it a little. It was times like this when she wished that she could actually see him as a person, rather than a device; she had become good at reading his little light cues but sometimes she had no idea what he was thinking. Finally, she tapped the screen of her device, entering in Sonya's information.

"Can we at least know who that person," she used the word uncertainly, for there had been something very alien about Caph, "was, and what they were doing here?"

"It's two in the morning, and that might be a long conversation where we should all be awake enough to listen. I wasn't aware of this 'Caph' until tonight, though Veran may know," Sonya added. "She can tell us more when we meet, yes?"

"I…" The sorceress, who had always managed to hold an air of mocking superiority, almost sounded nervous, then. The brief orange light indicated annoyance that her poise had slipped, and Veran retreated into a sulking quiet.

"You two should go home for tonight," Sonya said. "Veran will wipe anything incriminating from the security cameras." This was spoken sternly, an unnegotiable request directed towards the sorceress. Then, she brushed some stray, frazzled strands of hair and hooked it neatly back behind her ear, and then said more gently, "I hope you'll come, though I understand if you do not want to."

Zelda searched Sonya's face for any signs of deceit. She was still wary of the woman after what she'd done, but from what she could tell Sonya was being genuine. She saw someone, like her, who'd been reluctant to ask the mysterious soul in her SS important questions, out of fear that it might… leave her. Zelda glanced down one more time at the quiet Vaati in her hands.

"I'll think about it," she said, knowing already that she fully intended to meet with Sonya. Then, she turned towards the doors to leave with Hilda following slowly behind her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

When Zelda returned home she found it unsettlingly peaceful, like everything that had happened in the past hour had been some kind of weird dream. The only sign that the last twenty-four hours had been real was the fact that she was still as Sheik – Hilda had insisted she keep the borrowed outfit for now. She felt bad that her friend had become dragged into… whatever this was. What with sorcerers and sorceresses, and talks of gods, this was starting to seem like something bigger than what either of them had ever imagined.

The lights turned on without her uttering a word: Vaati, though quiet, was apparently still alert. She spoke a quiet thanks before she slowly made her way to her room. She stopped once, just at the top of the stairs in front of her father's room. She could hear his muffled snoring through the door, oblivious to what she had been doing. There was no sign of him worrying over where she had gone, or why she wasn't home so late at night – she'd expected it, of course, and it had made it easier for her to sneak out, but at the same time a part of her was a little… upset. It was her fault entirely that she never explained to Nohansen anything about her life, but… she knew, _knew_ that even if she'd told him he wouldn't understand it. She'd already tried talking to him for the last nineteen years. Their conversations were like playing catch with someone who couldn't throw the ball back; she would toss, and toss, and toss, but the balls only kept piling around her father's feet while her side continued to become emptier. One night wasn't going to change anything.

She stopped once by the bathroom to take her red lenses out. She paused in front of the mirror, seeing Sheik look back at her instead of Zelda. He was confident and unafraid, but even he looked tired after everything tonight. Zelda went back to her room and then sat on the edge of her bed, the SS in her hands as she watched it uncertainly. She sighed, and then slowly unbraided her hair and placed the baseball cap that Hilda had given her on her nightstand.

"Vaati I'm sorry…" she finally said, unable to bear the silence.

Vaati's answer was immediate, almost like he, too, had been waiting for her to break the silence first. "Why are you apologizing?"

She shook her head. "I shouldn't have let Veran take you in the first place," she said. "I'm glad you're okay."

There was a brief pause, like he was thinking of an appropriate response but was struggling to do so. After some time, he said gruffly, "As I am now, I cannot sleep. That is not the case for you. You are tired, and it is late," the screen on the SS flashed the current time in large bold type. It read 2:38AM. "Rest."

Zelda gave a small haggard laugh, and then nodded. He was right. It was late, and she was tired. They could catch up on things later. She wanted to talk but… perhaps that would be better when she was rested. With a hint of reluctance, she hooked the SS onto its battery charger, clipped the camera off her collar, and then curled under her bedsheets still in her Sheik outfit. The lights dimmed and she closed her eyes.

Ten minutes later, her eyes opened from a voice on the wall. "You haven't slept."

She smiled a little. Caught. "You can tell?"

"From your breathing, yes."

"Yeah, I can't sleep," Zelda admitted. She stared at the ceiling for some time, listening to the cars passing in the street below. Then, "Can I be with you in Asphodel for a little while?"

The dark of the room lit up with a soft, surprised blue glow from the status light. After a few seconds' pause, Vaati replied. There was no sarcasm or snark, when he said, "Yes."

She crawled back out from under her covers, and then gently popped the SS from its charger and connected it to the VR headgear for Asphodel. She laid back down on the bed, and then closed her eyes as she switched the power on, diving into the game.

The next time her eyes opened they were red, not blue. Sheik, not Zelda. He sat up from where he'd logged in, back in the main hub of the vast field of asphodels. The petals brushed against his shoulders, soft and fragile. He looked around and saw that he had spawned under the canopy of a large, dead tree with smooth white bark, almost like bone. Beside him, he saw Vaati, who was sitting with his back leaned against the tree. The game world was on its night cycle, and the sorcerer seemed to be studying the jeweled stars overhead while lost in his own thoughts. At noticing Sheik arrive, Vaati tilted his chin slightly towards him to acknowledge his presence, before he went back to looking up at the stars.

"I sometimes find it fitting that this is the only place where I can be like this, with a body," he murmured. Then, he flattened his lips and held back a sigh. "I never really told you about myself, did I…"

"You never seemed to want to talk about yourself," Sheik replied.

Vaati feel quiet in silent agreement. The words to describe his history, however, did not come easy. How could it? There was both so much and so little to talk about, so many failures he wasn't proud of among successes that were no one's business to know. Once upon a time he'd found it easy to gloat about himself, back when he'd been younger and less embittered from torture. He'd been talkative, confident, larger than life. Now he no longer cared for such things. He festered.

But he felt he owed Sheik at least this much. He'd been wrong to assume that he could not rely on the naïve, optimistic blonde. Still not knowing quite how to begin, Vaati reached forward and plucked one of the ash colored flowers that covered the entire field around them. He twirled it slowly between his fingertips, the white petals glowing under the moonlight. "Do you know the symbolism behind asphodel fields? In some of the old tales, it's a place where people go after they die," he said. "It is not a place for those who have performed impressive deeds. Not heroes, not gods." His voice lowered, and the flower slipped from his fingers, falling to his feet. "Just man in his most unremarkable form."

 _Not gods_. The words echoed in Sheik's head, familiar as they were. "Vaati," he asked, "what did Caph mean when he said you were once a god?"

"Exactly what it means." The sorcerer turned his head to finally meet Sheik's gaze, eye to eye. His gaze was piercing when he spoke, but eventually it broke when fatigue seemed to creep back up along his shoulders, weighing him. "You must have figured this out by now, but I am… someone from the past. Hundreds and hundreds of years ago, your world was much like Asphodel. I was almost surprised by its likeness to what I'd known before." He gave an embittered smile. "I was a sorcerer, the most powerful one to exist. I had the power of a god. I could level kingdoms with the wave of my hand, and alter the course of history on a whim."

"You were the wind itself, wrath and freedom embodied." Sheik laughed, embarrassed. He tugged at the mask up higher along his face. "I couldn't help remember that quote, it struck me when you said it."

Vaati blinked, surprised that Sheik had remembered what he'd said in his fit of rage before. His expression softened. "Yes… And even though I have regained some of my freedom through this 'digital' world, these asphodels are reminders that I am not who I believed I was." Vaati shifted his weight, pushing himself away from where he'd been leaning against the dead tree to sit forward, back curled and an arm hooked around a knee. He sneered. "Veran and Caph are both right, you know. I was, and am, a dangerous man. I was sealed away, imprisoned, because of it. Left to rot to pay for my crimes, until I was freed and woken here, in this new prison." He glanced at Sheik, red eyes narrowed and studying him closely. "I wonder if you, too, would wish upon me the punishment that I had been handed if you knew of the things I had done."

It was a fair question, and one that Sheik had wondered about himself sometimes. He knew nothing about Vaati, and more than once he'd wondered if the sorcerer was hiding a dark past. However, he may not have known much about Vaati's past, but he knew how he behaved, and he recognized when Vaati was testing him. He was daring him to tell the truth, but also daring him to lie. It was almost like Vaati wanted to see him fail, so that he would have a reason to push him away, and not rely on him.

Instead, Sheik responded with a question. "Do you regret what you have done?"

Whatever tension had risen to Vaati's shoulders dissipated as he chewed on the question. "Regret? Hah," he barked. An almost forlorn shadow passed over his face. "I wonder if I do. Perhaps I regret how things transpired, because what I have suffered was never worth what I had gained and lost. But were my actions wrong?" His fingers curled into a fist, anger that he'd held onto for so many years surfacing briefly. Though Vaati seemed reluctant to admit regret, Sheik could see it. This was a man who had been beaten to the point where he would do anything to escape, but couldn't see a way out. This, this was regret of a man who'd served, but believed he'd served punishment disproportionate to his crimes. "Is it so wrong to want more than what I was condemned to? Is it so wrong to want something different, to take things into my own hands to change my own fate?"

"That's a question that has many answers. But…" Sheik sat up as well, his expression stern. He reached out, placing a hand on Vaati's shoulder. The sorcerer instantly recoiled, surprised by the sudden touch, but Sheik was firm. Rather than lash out at the breach of personal space, however, Vaati's stiffness gradually left when he noticed how serious Sheik was when he spoke. "Being able to admit that we were wrong, I think that's what makes humans stronger, better than so-called gods. We have faults, but we have the power to improve on them. We grow. I would rather be a human, than a god who does not have the strength to admit they were wrong."

Then, Sheik slowly released his grip on Vaati's shoulder, an abashed chuckle escaping his lips as he leaned back once more against the tree. He closed his eyes with a tired smile. "I still think of you as my friend, Vaati. Please don't forget that."

Vaati stared at the rogue, once again surprised by their frankness. Something about what they said regarding humans and gods, too, gave him pause for thought. It was still a blow to see how little power he'd had compared to a real god, Caph, and another blow to find himself in a field that reminded him just how far he'd been from godhood. However… were mortals stronger than he'd given them credit for?

His train of thoughts were interrupted by another thought. He chuckled. "You remind me of someone I used to know," he said softly.

The conversation lulled into a comfortable silence again as they looked out at the ghostly white fields that seemed to glow under the night sky. It was a tired silence, but not an unpleasant one. It was the perfect place to rest, but the longer the peace lasted the more a thought began to gnaw away at Vaati. A part of him knew that Sheik was sincere in everything he said, perhaps to a fault. At the same time, there was an ugly insecurity that he carried, a cynical thought that doubted Sheik despite everything he'd seen.

He went back and forth, knowing he should say something but not quite knowing the words he wanted to say. And so it was perhaps another fifteen minutes later when he finally managed to open his mouth to say something. Even then his voice was small, just barely audible above the mournful moan of the wind that made the flowers bow at his feet. "I really am dangerous to you, though," he said. "I… was tempted. Perhaps I still am, for there is a way for me to escape this place, but at a cost." His chest rose and fell with a sigh. "Would you still say that if you knew, I wonder."

Suddenly, he felt a weight press against his left shoulder. Startled, his head jerked towards the unexpected contact, and then raised his eyebrows when he saw a hooded head propped against him. Vaati didn't need to see Sheik's face, hidden as it was beneath his hood, to know that the rogue had fallen asleep. His breathing was slow and heavy, a sign that he had collapsed into deep sleep from the day's exhaustion. "Putting your guard down like that…" Vaati muttered under his breath, but his lips curled into a tiny smile despite himself.

He allowed Sheik to rest on his shoulder for a while longer, unsure about moving him. He surprised himself, too, when he realized that he did not exactly mind it. He listened to the breaths that gradually became longer, and felt the weight of Sheik's body grow heavier on his side as the rogue drifted further into sleep. Eventually, Vaati checked the time on the system display: 3:58AM. It probably wasn't a good idea to let Sheik remained logged into the game while still asleep…

Careful not to wake him, Vaati gently shifted his weight so he could look at the rogue better. Sheik's head was slumped to the side, blond bangs falling messily over his face that was half buried behind a black cloth. Though he could only see a glimpse of Sheik's face, he was still familiar to Vaati; the same one he would always see through the lens of the SS device. The same one who'd, despite his doubts, come for him when they'd separated. And not only that, but the same one he'd seen over the years, across the ages – the one that was always there even if everything else became unrecognizable.

Tentatively, the sorcerer lifted his hand, softly brushing the blond locks away from the rogue's face. Then, when the last strands fell from his fingertips, he completed the command through his SS that would forcefully log Sheik out of the game.

Sheik vanished, and Vaati was left alone under the bone-white tree. Alone once again, just what he was used to. He picked up the asphodel that he'd tossed aside earlier. It was beginning to wilt already, its stem curling forward and its petals no longer as bright.

Just what he was used to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this story :)   
> I will keep updating here, but sometimes updates may be faster on my main account (under the same name) on fanfiction.net


	14. Conference of Gods

Vaati watched Zelda from the camera of his SS. It wasn’t like he had any choice in what he could look at, for his field of vision was dictated by wherever it was the device was pointing at, and the video camera that Zelda had clipped to her collar. She was currently fidgeting a little where she sat, one hand by the SS now docked on its stand on the desk, and the other nursing what was probably a sore neck. It had been frustrating for Vaati to see be locked on the Asphodel headset knowing that Zelda was going to have regrets in the morning, and not being able to do anything about it. He would have spent more time in Asphodel, except he’d been distracted by the thought that she might roll over and crush the device he was in.

They’d been tired. Zelda, physically. Himself, mentally. Emotionally, too. It was already past noon and yet Zelda had only just woken about an hour ago.  A lot had happened in the last twenty-four hours, and both were still trying to sort things through so they could decide on how to move forward. After all, there was a lot more that remained unsaid, and Vaati knew that the nature of their relationship would change because of it. How could it not? He held the power to ensnare Zelda in the very situation he was trapped in, while at the same time he was at her mercy if he decided not to use said aforementioned power.

He saw the subtle dip in Zelda’s brow, her gaze lowered and unfocused like she was mulling over troubled thoughts. Her expressions weren’t obvious, but after spending days with nothing to see except her face, he’d become rather good at reading her tells: she was worried. He could already guess what it was that was beginning to gnaw at her. She’d had enough time and enough rest since last night to begin to piece together enough for her to become suspicious of him. He was hiding something, and he was dangerous; honestly it surprised him that it had taken her this long for her to finally _get it_.

The screen flickered, and the SS absentmindedly flicked through some random articles like he was flipping his thumb through a book that he clearly wasn’t reading. It irritated him that he’d allowed himself to feel bothered by this, no matter how briefly.  He remembered last night with the two of them watching the splash of stars of an unnamed galaxy funneling up towards the sky, the field a soft white glow of asphodels. He remembered how Sheik had surprised him with that lingering touch on his arm, once again assuring him that he would be there for him. And then he remembered Sheik, unwisely letting his guard down and falling asleep on his shoulder. Vaati had still maintained his skepticism, but… he hadn’t hated that moment. The selfish, egotistical part of him detested the thought of losing such trust.

Besides, he told himself, it was natural to be annoyed. Zelda continued to make those grand claims that she would be there for him, and yet when all was said and done she was having doubts. Doubting him. Reasonable doubts, of course, but then he would have rather she’d never said those things. This insecurity of his, it disgusted him. He wouldn’t feel this way if he wasn’t trapped. He was _confident_ , and yet…

Talking himself into a circle, Vaati eventually spoke up, unable to be forced to continue looking at Zelda who was likely digging herself further and further into thoughts of doubt. He was _convinced_ that she was on the verge of coming to the conclusion that she should get rid of such a dangerous person like him.

“I can tell, you are wondering if you can trust me. You are a little too honest with your face,” he said. He was aware that he was beginning to ramble, but the point bothered him enough that he ignored the feeling like a car accelerating into a nasty crash. He almost regretted opening his metaphorical mouth when he saw Zelda blink and raise her head slightly in surprise, but he kept going anyway. “Perhaps you are awake enough now to reconsider your blind faith in someone you know nothing about.”

“Oh… I was just thinking about the conference call we agreed to make with Sonya in an hour,” Zelda murmured. She sounded a little confused by Vaati’s sudden accusation that seemingly came out of nowhere. “I’m worried about you. Maybe you’re right, I don’t trust you to make good decisions,” she said with a small, apologetic smile.

Her reaction only sent Vaati into further depths of frustration. Anger. He was disconcerted that his assumptions had been wrong partly because of the fact that he’d been _wrong_ , but also because he Zelda still refused to admit that she didn’t trust his motives. It made no sense to him. It would save him vexation if she could finally get it through her head that she should not trust him like this, and to not be so… so damned accommodating. Could she not just admit it already that she did not trust him?

The sorcerer retreated back within the pages and applications of the SS in silence, though not without a red light betraying his feelings.  

“Vaati, is something wrong?” Zelda asked, sitting up straighter now, knowing she had upset him but not quite knowing why. She knew that both of them were apprehensive about the call starting soon, but that wasn’t what this was about. She tentatively reached for the device in worry, but pulled back when Vaati replied tersely.

“Leave me.”

Zelda recoiled, pulling her hand away. She watched the SS for a few minutes, until finally her shoulders lowered with a barely noticeable sigh. “… Okay.”

However, rather than calming down, Vaati instead seemed to be incited further. This was something that had been bothering him since the first time he’d met this era’s Zelda, and it had finally reached a point where he could no longer remain quiet about it. Fuming, all of the pages that had been open on the device force-quit, almost like someone very deliberately slamming a book shut. “No. That is exactly it. That is exactly your problem.” Vaati’s voice quivered the more Zelda became confused at his anger. “You _let_ things happen to you! You don’t do things for yourself, you try so hard to be ‘nice,’ to be ‘compassionate.’ Selfless? You’re a fool, and you _frustrate_ me.”

Zelda remained quiet. The creases along her forehead from her brows scrunching together had left, and she was no longer looking at him with bewilderment. Instead, she folded her hands on her lap, listening to his rant patiently, which only encouraged the sorcerer to continue spitefully.

“You know _nothing_ about me, and yet you throw yourself in danger to help me. You know _nothing_ about me, but you say you trust me. You do this with your father as well,” Vaati hissed.

There was a twitch of her nose at the mention of her father, the smallest indication that Vaati’s words had affected her that time. There was a momentary lapse of hurt in her eyes before she hid any emotion with a cool, collected mask. She said nothing, letting Vaati finish his fuming. 

“You’re clearly uncomfortable, but you avoid confrontation and instead, _accommodate_. Have you no spine…” Vaati muttered. There was an audible huff and the screen flickered through several dozen pages agitatedly like someone was flipping through a book not to read, but to provide a distraction from the conversation.

There was a stunned silence while Zelda stared blankly at the riled SS, taking in everything that had been said. She _should_ have snapped back at him, defended herself in some way, but she didn’t, despite the fact that Vaati’s comments had been aimed at provocation. Her face instead lit up with a smile and she gave a quiet, self-conscious laugh. “I never noticed I do that…”

The light glowed a bright red, like Vaati was about to make another pointed remark, but instead he folded, giving up on trying to get a reaction from her that was something other than patience. He lowered his voice after a pause akin to a deep breath. “I once knew of someone like you. They lived their life sacrificing themself for the sake of others. It was infuriating to watch.”

“It sounds like you cared about them.”

The small flickers of the status light froze, and then shut down into an unreadable, unresponsive black. Her comment had been unexpected, and though his first reaction was to angrily argue against it, he never did. By the time he noticed he’d paused it was too late to deny Zelda’s comment, and though annoyance bubbled up his chest he could only manage a withheld sigh. A memory of a face flashed in his mind, one that was eerily similar to the one he could see through the lens. It wasn’t so much the physical similarities, though there were some distinct parallels there too, but it was more the way they looked at him. It was that same look that had frustrated him before, many years past; one that, despite the things he had done that hurt her, showed that she still hurt for him. As though she felt sorry for him. “They were someone too compassionate for their own good,” he said eventually.

Zelda chewed on her lip, mulling on Vaati’s words for some time. She’d long since stopped fidgeting and was sitting with her hands folded neatly on her lap, watching the sorcerer with a troubled gaze. Though she did seem somewhat upset by Vaati’s words, she refused to give Vaati the fight that he seemed determined to have. “I guess I never wanted to press you because I was afraid to find out if my worries are true,” she said quietly. “I’m worried about the things that have been happening, and the things that you haven’t told me. I guess I don’t… I don’t want to face the possibility that if you finally told me the truth I-“ she hesitated, not quite sure of the words that she meant to say. She eventually trailed off with a murmur, “I don’t want to lose you.”

“It’s a little pathetic, in my opinion,” Vaati snorted. “I have given you no reason for you to be attached to me in any manner.”

This time, Zelda sighed. However, it was not with the anger or irritation that Vaati seemed to be looking for. Instead it was infuriatingly patient. When she spoke it was stern, like she was secure in her knowledge that she wasn’t going to be spoken over, but it was calm and lacked fire. “You keep suggesting that friendship is some kind of transactional relationship. It’s not always about how much benefit the other person brings,” she said. Then she smiled. “Sometimes you like someone even when you don’t know why.”

There was a stunned silence, and Vaati was for once glad that he did not have a face to express himself with for he would have been left staring blankly at her. He wondered if he’d misheard, even when he’d heard her words clearly. Still, the concept eluded him. Zelda, the one who stood against him time and time again, the one who was always, in some way, responsible for his repeated imprisonment in the holy sword… to think that he would hear her imply that she felt fondly for him was just –

It didn’t make sense to him. She wasn’t _supposed_ to like him. Even if she were a different Zelda, that’s how it always had been. He felt uncomfortable in the newness of the situation, and despite the fact that he’d always wished for a departure from the script, he suddenly realized just how much he clung to familiarity. He searched her unwavering eyes, unable to believe (and perhaps even a little afraid to believe) that she truly stood by what she said. And yet he found nothing but confidence in her smile, and he almost felt a little jealous of how grounded she was in knowing her own feelings when… he couldn’t understand his own.

Zelda continued, “I don’t have to know everything about you to know that I want to help you, too.” She lowered her gaze, “I know Caph gave you a deadline of a month. I don’t know the full story, but I’m not letting that happen.”

Vaati was quiet for a while. The status light on the SS was no longer a furious red, and instead was an unresponsive black like he’d burrowed back into the depths of his thoughts. From time to time it faintly glowed a dull yellow or orange, like he kept changing his mind about saying something. Finally, the light went out, and he spoke. His words were less antagonistic, and more resigned. “If you truly want to help me,” he said quietly, “you must forfeit your life.”

“Huh…?”

Vaati watched her smile fall, her earlier confidence breaking. He felt self-assured for a moment in seeing her falter. He’d been right, of course. No matter how well-intentioned, such baseless claims of trust was bound to fall apart with a small push of reality. He chuckled bitterly. “That is the only way for me to leave this wretched prison, and for me to obtain a real body. For the purposes of their own personal project, Caph has decided to help me return to the physical world. However, it requires that I agree to steal your body from you.” He watched her closely, almost testing her to show how she _truly_ felt about him; that she was suspicious and afraid of him, that she couldn’t trust him. It would put his mind to rest if she would just admit that much. At the very least, it would save him from the disappointment he would never admit to having if he ended up being right…

Disappointment. That sinking feeling in his gut that gripped him whenever he allowed himself to foolishly feel _hopeful_. He should know better by now that hope was foolish and without certainty. And yet, he felt a momentary pang of disappointment when he saw how Zelda remained speechless at his words, no longer able to find that naïve confidence again.

Ha… perhaps now she would know better than to believe in him so strongly.

“You realize what that would mean for you, yes?” he asked.

Zelda turned away, unable to respond. She looked down at her hands, her cheeks suddenly pale.

Mercifully, a notice popped up on the screen of Vaati’s SS. It was a reminder that the conference call that they had agreed to attend with Veran was coming up soon. Vaati turned his attention away from his camera feed and towards the call application showing Sonya Driscoll as having accepted the call invitation. “Let us speak with Veran,” he said shortly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“I have already spoken to Veran about what has been going on, but I have invited you to this call so that everyone is on the same page.”

Sonya was back to the poised, collected woman that Zelda had met in the alley on the far end of the city. On the screen, Zelda could see her sitting tall in front of a large, polished, imposing black desk. She was no longer rattled like she’d been the night before, and she spoke with level confidence. In the top left corner of the SS, Zelda could see a smaller screen showing Hilda who had also been invited to the conference call. Next to that was another thumbnail of herself.

She tried her best to listen to what Sonya and Veran were telling her, rather than what Vaati had told her moments before. The realization that she had been overestimating her own capabilities to help him had hit her, hard, and she was finding it difficult to stay focused on what the women were explaining to her. She was glad for Hilda’s presence, since her friend seemed to ask the questions she would have asked if she were feeling better.

“Then I suppose I should get right to it.” Veran’s voice piped up, and the border around Sonya’s picture lit up on the screen. “Both Vaati and I are from a long time passed. You could say we were both prisoners.”

“You were criminals?” Hilda asked, scrunching her nose in suspicion.

Veran scoffed. “Criminal is such a small, barbaric word. I prefer ‘revolutionary,’ or something of the ilk myself. Though, I cannot speak for the wind mage over there.” Zelda could imagine her turning her nose up scornfully as she spoke. She had never met Veran’s avatar, but from her voice and commandeering presence alone she could see the sorceress as being a tall, proud woman not unlike Sonya, who often spoke with a slightly mocking tilt of her head. “Caph freed us, or rather our consciousness I suppose. Their purpose is to use us in their own personal project to see if-”

There was a split-second pause where Veran hesitated. She recovered quickly, but it did not go unnoticed by Zelda.

“-well, it was something about putting souls into a vessel it doesn’t belong in,” she finished.

 Zelda held her breath. As vague as Veran had been, she knew exactly what she was talking about, and the fact that it matched what Vaati had told her earlier increased her feelings of dread. At the same time, the fact that Veran seemed intent on skirting the issue made Zelda curious enough that she raised her head a little to see how Sonya was reacting. She understood why Veran might have wanted to keep it a secret from Sonya, as damning as the information was. Zelda’s eyes wandered towards the status light of her SS, wondering what had made Vaati decide to tell her about Caph’s deal when even Veran wouldn’t say a word.

To her surprise, Vaati was quick to corner Veran on this point. “You’ve left out an important detail, haven’t you,” he said, to which Zelda caught a small, confused dip along Sonya’s eyebrows. The sorcerer continued. “Either because they refuse to do it, or because our bodies are no longer possible to retrieve, Caph initially contained us in these devices. Recently, we were informed of another solution that they have been working on.”

“Vaati,” Veran hissed a warning, though she was quick to let her threats fall when she saw Sonya appear further concerned. It was too late, however. Her message of “don’t you dare” was not lost on anyone, and Sonya looked sharply at the screen, prompting Vaati to explain.

“They wanted to know if a soul transferred into a different body could remain as they are, what they called a preliminary investigation to a greater project to revive the dead,” Vaati continued. “Caph needs us to agree to transfer our souls to our hosts.”

Through the screen, Zelda saw what she herself must have looked like only minutes before the call. She saw Sonya blink, perhaps wondering if she’d misunderstood what Vaati had said. Then, her look of surprise slowly morphed into concern, then dread when she began to realize what it meant. Her voice wavered when she noted the lack of surprise on Zelda’s face, realizing that while Vaati had been honest about this to Zelda, Veran had not. “And what happens to us?” she asked, though from her break in poise it was obvious she had already guessed the answer.

This time, Veran sighed defeatedly when she realized she could hide this no longer. “We trade places, or you might even cease existing. It is not clear what happens, exactly, but…” she trailed off for a few seconds, and then sighed again uncomfortably, “you heard what happened to Onox. It is not as though Caph knows what they are doing.”

“Veran, you should have told me this,” Sonya said, and then added, “Thank you for telling me, Vaati.”

Vaati’s smug ‘hmph’ was interrupted by Veran who was becoming uncharacteristically nervous. She spoke quickly, and a few times her voice threatened to catch. “And what good would that have done? It wouldn’t have mattered if I had no plans on humoring their offer.”

“And if Caph finds a way to do this without messing up like they did with Onox-“ Sonya began, but Veran rounded on her quickly.

“That is out of the question. That is never going to be an option so we can stop talking about it, am I making myself clear?”

The comment was met by a still unconvinced look from Sonya, to which Veran gave an exasperated noise. The sorceress probably would have thrown her hands up in the air if she could have, and the screen showing Sonya’s face flickered and lagged out for a split second. “Oh, don’t make me say it,” she muttered. There was an uncomfortable pause while Veran waited for Sonya, hoping she wouldn’t press further, but when the other woman only scrunched her brows together she gave up. There was a barely audible huff, before Veran gathered herself and started over. “I _like_ you,” she said. Her admission over, confidence returned to her voice. “Besides,” she addressed Vaati with a smug tone, “is that not why you haven’t taken the deal either, Vaati?”

 _Huh?_ Zelda blinked, and she lifted her chin a little when she noticed the status light flare an indignant red.

“I know you’ve gotten more attached than you would care to admit,” Vera teased. “I find it amusing that you aren’t quite living up to your reputation of being a ruthless opportunist.”

“My reasons are of no importance to you,” Vaati finally snapped back.

Zelda looked at the device in front of her. She could hear Vaati and Veran going back and forth, but her mind had wandered elsewhere during their exchange as she was too caught up with what Veran had said. Earlier, she’d almost started convincing herself that the sorcerer thought her annoying. A nuisance he could do nothing but deal with, because of circumstances. But…

She watched the device blinking angrily while Vaati got in an increasingly heated argument with Veran, almost like he was trying too hard to contest her point. Some weight lifted off her shoulders as she thought on Veran’s words, and a small relieved smile tugged at her lips. Vaati could have taken Caph’s offer weeks ago, and yet something had stopped him. She thought back to about a week ago, when they were in Asphodel and he’d returned to her after he’d wandered away. He’d been shaken, then, like he’d been forced to confront a decision he wasn’t prepared to make. She remembered how his hands had lingered on hers while he’s spoken with a pained whisper, words spoken to himself that she didn’t belong there and neither did he. She now understood what he’d been trying to say; that he had every reason to take Caph’s deal and yet had found himself unable to.

_You’ve been struggling all this time, haven’t you…_

A stern, matter-of-fact tone from Veran brought everyone back to attention, and though Vaati still seemed to be fuming he appeared to have lost interest in continuing the argument. Some pages and applications rearranged themselves in a way that Zelda could only describe as ‘huffily,’ while Veran spoke. “Either way, I believe we all agree that we must remove Caph from the picture,” she said.

Zelda frowned. “But if you do that,” she began, but was immediately cut off by Vaati.

“We’ll find another way,” he said sharply, eager not to discuss the issue. Veran took his side for once.

“Besides, something about agreeing to become some so-called god’s plaything does get on my nerves.”

“Wait, hold on.” The screen lit up and for the first time since the conference call had started, the small screen with Hilda’s face blinked and her audio activated. She had a skeptical arch along her brow, and she was sitting straight and alert where she sat. The mention of ‘god’ by Veran seemed to have been the final straw that had prompted her to speak up in the conversation. “I’m missing something here but… just who and what _is_ Caph?” she asked.

“A god,” Vaati replied simply.

“Like, _actually_ a god.”

“Yes.”

Hilda chewed on her lip, looking more incredulous than ever. At the same time, she didn’t seem to dwell on it, and was surprisingly quick to come to terms with the fact that powerful beings really did exist, perhaps because she’d already seen magic first hand. She was, however, more concerned with something else. “And you’re just going to fight a god, and expect to win?” she asked.

Ah yes… that was the other problem. Zelda didn’t know much about gods, but if stories were anything to go by then they were extremely powerful beings who could bend reality to their will. She wished then that she’d been more serious about spirituality and prayer, if only so that she might know more about how to deal with such creatures. The fact that she knew so little about them made them more frightening – what could they do against something so powerful? She disliked admitting defeat so soon, but what could a couple of humans and souls trapped in small electronic devices hope to achieve? She looked up when she heard Veran sniff disdainfully at the question.

“Hmph. Do not underestimate us, darling, we were once called gods ourselves.”

At this, Zelda’s lips formed a small ‘oh’ as she remembered what Vaati had said about having once been a god. Vaati had been one, and apparently Veran too. Or, perhaps not exactly a god, but something rivaling their power. Perhaps they had some idea on how to deal with Caph, then? The thought and confidence were encouraging, but…

The fact remained that neither Vaati nor Veran were exactly how they’d once been. Her concerns were telegraphed too clearly on her face, and it didn’t go unnoticed by the sorceress. “That said,” Veran clarified, “I am not so arrogant to throw caution to the winds.” She paused, and Zelda could practically see her smug grin directed towards Vaati. The former wind mage gave an irritated snort in response while she continued. “I require the assistance of everyone who has even the smallest chance of being able to fight a god. Vaati, you _do_ know what I am getting at?”

The light faded momentarily from red to yellow, but Vaati remained quiet.

“Someone is going to have to talk to the big boy to be cooperative.”

The light flashed to a cautious orange. “You don’t mean-“

“I know where he is. He’s locked himself far beyond the original boundaries of Asphodel’s world. I do not know what he has been doing all by himself, but he has been busy.”

“Who?” Hilda asked. And then something dawned on her. “This… doesn’t have anything to do with the rumors of players permanently losing their accounts and the roaming raid bosses…?” she trailed off uncertainly.

“Sharp one, aren’t you? I haven’t investigated into this closely myself, but yes, yes I do believe that is his doing. He’s been staying out of trouble for the most part and so I have been leaving him alone, but we need him now. Someone,” and she said the word deliberately, “needs to drag him out of his hole.”

“You will have to search for someone else, then,” Vaati said sharply. “If you wish to recruit Ganondorf then you will have to do it yourself.”

“Unfortunately I must admit that I cannot hope to subdue the man if he becomes angry.” From the way she cooed almost mockingly, Zelda could tell that Veran didn’t believe a word she said. “Did you not say that you were, what was it again,” she clicked her tongue, “the most powerful sorcerer in the world? Surely you are better suited for this than I.” She huffed in a way that suggested she would be smirking. “Besides, I have important things to do with Sonya that will take up my valuable time. I’ve been busy, Vaati. While you were playing around with magnets I’ve been making plans to take down a god.”

“Veran,” Sonya spoke up before an argument could start. She tiredly rested her chin on her hands. “Please stop provoking him.”

“If you wish,” Veran said in a voice that still contained an undertone of mockery, while Zelda kept a careful eye on the fuming red status light of her SS. The sorceress hummed, and then her tone lightened when she addressed Hilda. “Hmm, that does remind me. You there, the other trouble maker.”

“It’s Hilda,” the dark-haired girl grumbled, still wary of the one who’d hurt her friend.

“Yes, you. I may require your assistance while the other two help with recruitment.”

“Me?”

“Now wait just one second.” Zelda straightened up and picked up the SS from its stand closer to her face. She’d been fine with listening to Veran up until this point since the sorceress seemed to at least have some kind of plan, but she was starting to become annoyed by the pushy way she directed things. “I don’t appreciate how you’re just assuming that we’re going to go along with everything you say. I agreed to let Hilda join because she has every right to know what’s going on, but I’m not letting you drag her into this.”

“She was _already_ dragged into this when the two of you showed up at our doorstep,” Veran retorted, and Zelda flinched at the truth of the comment. She saw Hilda shake her head furiously and attempt to get in a word against the sorceress in defense, but she was drowned out by a shrill laugh to which Sonya reacted with a withheld sigh. “Ahaha! Besides, if you are smart you will listen to me,” Veran said, and she lowered her voice. “Let me be honest with you. Without me, you don’t stand a chance against Caph. One month will pass and you will lose your precious little wind mage, or he will throw you to the wolves. Now, do you want to help me kill a god, or do you want to waste everyone’s time being so high up your holy horse that you refuse to listen to me?”

Zelda felt her cheeks burn. Everything regarding Caph had happened so quickly that she hadn’t had time to make a decision on what she wanted herself, and she couldn’t help but feel that Veran was capitalizing on that. The sorceress had a big, forceful personality that didn’t allow much room for questioning. Or perhaps Zelda was just… a little jealous that here, _here_ was someone who seemed to know exactly what they wanted, and where they wanted to go. The conversation with Vaati earlier was still a little raw, and she couldn’t help but think how, once again, she was simply allowing things to _happen_ to her.

She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by Vaati who sounded even more offended than she was. “ _You insufferable witc-“_

“ _Vaati_.” Zelda stopped him, and he immediately cut short out of surprise. She took a small breath to gather her thoughts, surprising herself with the stern tone she’d used. Her expression softened, then, and she thanked him silently with a small smile. _Let me, I can fight too._ She inhaled, closing her eyes. When she opened them again, her cool blue gaze was collected and determined. She wasn’t going to be pushed around, not by Veran and not by circumstances beyond her control. “First, I don’t like the idea of Hilda getting involved, but she can make her own decisions.”

“Damn straight I can,” Hilda piped up. “I’ll only help if I can see how it’ll help Zel. Otherwise you can forget it.”

 “Second,” Zelda continued, “This Ganondorf. Would I be able to reach him?”

“Hmm? Oh, I suppose you can, though… oh that will be interesting,” she mumbled to herself. A sly Cheshire grin could practically be heard through the mic. “Vaati darling are you sure you are okay letting her run to the demon king?”

A chill ran along her hand both at the name ‘demon king’ and the sudden uncertain waver in Vaati’s voice. “Zelda, you don’t-“ he began, but Zelda ignored the uneasy feeling that had passed and she fought over his protest more strongly.

“ _If I can convince Ganondorf to help, will we be able to defeat Caph or not?”_ Zelda asked sternly.

“It will raise our chances, certainly.”

Zelda exhaled, and then placed the SS device back onto its stand on her desk. She glanced once at the status light that was flickering an unsettled orange with a look that could freeze anyone in their tracks. All this time Vaati had been outright resistant to the idea of her helping him. Was it because he was afraid of owing her, because he didn’t think he deserved help, or because of something else he was struggling with? She wasn’t sure, but she was going to take his advice; she wasn’t going to let anyone dictate her actions. She was going to help because that was what she wanted to do. She wasn’t going to give up, and if there was a chance, even the smallest chance…

He was still her friend, and she stood by that.

“Alright. Let’s take down this god.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this far! My more rambly authors comments can be found on my main ff.net account for this fic.


	15. A Touch of Reality

"Why are you here?"

Vaati's question prompted the rogue leading them ahead to tilt his head slightly before continuing to carefully press through the thickening fog of the woods.

"To help you," Sheik said simply. They'd been over this conversation several times already, before he'd logged himself into Asphodel. The sorcerer had grumbled and muttered for hours earlier, trying to dissuade him from joining him in the search for Ganondorf, but Sheik had already made up his mind to go. Despite having insisted that recruiting Ganondorf was  _his_  job soon as he'd heard Sheik express interest in taking the job himself, Vaati seemed reluctant to lead the expedition and instead followed behind the rogue. It was almost like he wanted to go but didn't want to go at the same time, and couldn't make up his mind on how he felt about the whole thing. His lack of assertiveness in what he wanted was unusual.

Sheik could feel Vaati's narrowed stare boring through the back of his head. Unlike when speaking through the SS, in Asphodel Sheik could hear ever annoyed breath, every grinding of teeth and withheld sigh, and Vaati was sighing a lot while he followed. "You will just be dead weight if you come with me. Useless." Though Vaati complained, he didn't go so far as to force Sheik to leave like he so easily could have done. "You are even missing your studies, and for what? To be a liability I will have to look after."

"You're not going to guilt me into leaving, Vaati, if that's what you're trying to do." Sheik said, knowing exactly what Vaati was doing. He paused in his tracks to look at the compass in his hand and, once sure of where the needle was pointing, began to push his way through the trees once more. Torchlight lit the area around the fog.

"It is not a matter of guilting anyone, I am saying that you are being troublesome."

"You said earlier that I let things happen to me. I thought about it. And you were right, that is exactly what I do." Sheik slowed down when he thought he saw something move through the thicket ahead, and then breathed a sigh of relief when he realized it was just shadows cast by the moving fog. "So let me work on that and do something I  _want_  to do. I want to help you."

"He's dangerous," Vaati growled. For a split second, he looked as though he was going to say more on the matter, but he thought better of it and fell silent with frustration etched along his forehead instead.

"So I've heard." Sheik knew Vaati had no intention of stopping him. Both were aware that Vaati could easily overpower and force him to go back if he so wanted. Din, Vaati had the ability to log him out of the game, even. But it had been at least thirty minutes since they had been in Asphodel and the most the sorcerer had done was to try and convince Sheik to leave on his own.

Which was not something that was going to happen.

The rogue paused and turned to look the sorcerer in the eye, an unspoken challenge of "Why don't you stop me?" He watched Vaati narrow his eyes at him from beneath his embroidered hood. The sorcerer eventually grimaced and broke his gaze away, and Sheik gave a small satisfied (and slightly relieved) smile before turning around to look at their surroundings once more. "Okay, so we're at the Lost Woods now and we should be nearing the boundary that Sonya talked about? Normally we would hit the edge of the map near here that would loop us back to the entrance of the woods, but apparently the borders have been extended. Somehow. Our target is somewhere out there."

"If you die, you may not be able to come back here," Vaati said, not quite done trying to convince Sheik to leave. While Sheik and Hilda had already known about players permanently losing access to their accounts after encountering the 'demon king' that they were about to meet, Vaati had not, and the news had appeared to upset him when Veran first informed him of it. During the briefing, he'd asked many questions, unlike his usual silence. To make things worse, the rumors hadn't entirely been accurate: accounts had apparently become permanently suspended upon death in the regions that extended beyond the normal map space, regardless of whether or not one had been defeated by the demon king. "The entire region beyond the border is volatile," Veran had explained. Sheik hadn't forgotten how almost… excited she'd sounded as she said it.

"And if  _you_  die, we don't know what will happen to you," Sheik countered. "In the best case scenario you're still there, in the SS. Worst case…" he trailed off, but they both knew what he'd been about to say.  _You might truly die._

Sheik's concern seemed to offend Vaati more than anything, and irritation flashed across the moping sorcerer's face before he quickened his pace, striding over to where Sheik was. He reached over, grabbing Sheik's wrist and pulling it towards him before snatching the compass away from his fingers. While Sheik was somewhat used to the sorcerer's apparent lack of awareness for personal space, he didn't appreciate the compass being taken away and he let him know with a flat expression.

The sorcerer brushed him off, his cloak flicking behind him. "I am more than capable of handling myself," he said.

"And that is exactly why I'm going with you. You're confident, not cautious. You need someone to watch your six."

"My six?"

"Your back," Sheik clarified when a frown settled on Vaati's face, not understanding the modern turn of phrase. "I'm not letting you go alone  _because_  it's unpredictable and dangerous. I don't want to wake up one morning and-" his breath hitched, and he trailed off. Memories intruded his thoughts; memories that paralleled what he'd been about to say, and ones he'd tried to keep forgotten.

Someone handing him a plastic lunch box, a warm smile followed by a wave, a promise of pumpkin and goat cheese soup for dinner. A hushed call to the principal's office. His father, face ashen, waiting for him outside. Microwaved dinner, overdone, at the table, an empty seat across from him.

Sheik blinked, and he realized that he'd stopped walking and that Vaati was looking at him intently as though to ask what was wrong. The rogue absentmindedly tugged at the cloth resting around his neck, and he smiled weakly to let the sorcerer know he was fine. "… Let's just go."

He hastily walked forward, ignoring the skeptical frown Vaati was giving him which clearly indicated that the sorcerer wasn't buying it. Then, realizing that he no longer held the compass, turned to wait on the wind mage to lead.

Vaati continued to eye him for a few seconds longer, still doubting the idea of having Sheik come along with him but at the same time not doing anything to actively stop him. He'd caught the strange hesitation from Sheik just now, though he didn't pursue it for clarity. If he demanded answers, he would only risk being convinced to take him along. He didn't want Sheik to be here. Sheik was too weak to be of any use to him in combat, and not only that but if Ganondorf recognized him it would be a disaster. The wretched brute  _knew_  Zelda. Knew Sheik. Not the same one, no, but to the demon king they might as well be. Vaati could understand that: he'd thought the same the first time he'd seen this era's Zelda. The old man would have a grudge to be sure, and Vaati wasn't sure how they would actually deal with the inevitable confrontation. Could they talk him down? Could  _he_  talk him down? Long ago he'd once worked with the man, and they'd had a… strained but working alliance of a sort. He knew he could subdue him by force if it came down to it – Ganondorf had never been able to outright take him down – but he wasn't looking forward to the possibility of having to fight him. He just… it was just something he would rather not deal with.

Having Sheik come with him was a  _terrible_ idea.

At the same time he… needed Sheik to be here. Well, perhaps  _need_  was a strong word. He didn't need anyone, no. It was just, in some regards preferable for Sheik to be here. He himself was not one who knew how to ask for help, and he knew this. Asking someone for help was not something that crossed his mind often, and there was a part of him that resisted the idea with his every being. Ask for  _help?_   _Him?_ Hilarious thought.

But Veran was right. None of them were at their best and they needed any help they could get to bring down Caph. As much as he hated to admit it, it was even questionable whether it was possible at all to defeat a god, though the sorceress seemed to have some kind of idea. Or maybe she didn't have an idea at all, but hated the god enough that a vague possibility was enough for her to take chances on. Honestly, even if that were the case, Vaati could at least agree with her on one point: playing to a god's whims made bile rise in his throat.

And so it was that he was in a position where he needed to ask for help. He'd got into an argument with Veran over it, but the infuriating sorceress had claimed that she would be more useful elsewhere – specifically working on something with the other girl, Hilda. She had no details to tell him, though she implied she was searching for an ancient artifact of some kind. He didn't trust her at all, but for now he had no choice but to be the one to get Ganondorf over on their side.

He was not well equipped to ask for help. Sheik, on the other hand, had a character that was naturally (annoyingly) helpful, and he had no doubt that someone like him would also know how to ask for help as well. At least, better than he himself could. Between having to fight Ganondorf and asking him for help, Vaati would pick the former every time which, unfortunately, did nothing to further their efforts to defeat Caph. And for this reason he found himself wishing Sheik would leave, and also hoping he would stay. It was an uncomfortable situation.

He still  _did_  wish Sheik would leave on his own, if only so that he would not have to bear the burden of deciding what to do about the troublesome rogue.

He kept a close eye on the rogue who took careful, measured steps through the forest so that the fog would not take them. The Lost Woods in Asphodel was a place that was both familiar and unfamiliar to the sorcerer. Familiar, for it was clearly inspired by the real Lost Woods that had existed in years past. Unfamiliar, because while he'd heard of the woods before, he'd never taken the time to properly explore the real woods years ago. It was not a place that he had been inclined to visit; there was something within those woods that unsettled him, and reminded him of those tortuous years of imprisonment. There had been strong magic in those woods, and while magic was something that often drew him, those woods was a place that triggered a visceral need to distance himself from its secrets.

He was not weighed by such feelings of repulsion from the mimicry they now found themselves in. He could sense no magic here, and the thick fog and the trees that sprung from the mist were no more extraordinary than the blizzards that settled on the mountains or the cloudless, scorching sky in the desert. At the same time, there was definitely  _something_ here in these woods. While it wasn't that repulsive aura he'd felt from the real Lost Woods, he could feel the hairs stand up along his arms from the faint coils of magic, real magic rather than the artificial mockery that most 'players' would cast. It charged the air like static the further they continued through the woods. He wondered briefly if Sheik could sense it, too, for the rogue walked slower, more carefully, the more they progressed. It shouldn't have come as a surprise that Sheik would be able to have a sense for magic; he did carry the blood of royals past after all, along with the Triforce.

_The goddesses' champion._

Vaati's eyes rested on the golden bow hanging loosely against Sheik's back. It had been gifted by Veran's woman, Sonya, to help Sheik be a little more on equal footing with whatever they might encounter beyond the veil of the woods, along with the compass that he was using to help make it through the tricky fog. Sonya had explained that the bow was the strongest weapon a player from the rogue class could wield, and though Vaati had tried to understand that this was probably a coincidence and nothing more, he could imagine too clearly the goddesses' touch. It was  _too much_  of a coincidence for him to ignore, the kind of irony he despised. The bow was fashioned after the legendary light bow that Hyrule's princesses could wield – the very bow that had been used repeatedly over the course of history against demons like himself.

Seeing it again had disappointed him, upset him even, though not just because it was something that had been responsible for his numerous downfalls. Until now, he'd had the impression that Hylia's champion of this era had been spared the curse of becoming embroiled in the conflicts of the Triforce. No one seemed to know nor remember the legends of the golden power, and Zelda seemed unaware that she carried the power of gods. He knew all too well how the cycle was a curse, and a small, small part of him hoped that one of them had finally escaped it. In this era Zelda did not speak for the goddesses, but had a comfortably mundane life as a student trying to pass her courses. She'd seemed different than the others, and it had given him a foolish hope that perhaps this time it was different. That perhaps this time, after all these years the cycle was broken.

Of course not. Seeing Sheik with the bow of light only reminded him of that fact.

He remembered Veran's smugness of it all, and knew how the sorceress would be smiling patronizingly to herself as she sent Sheik off to do her bidding. No doubt a part of her wanted to see the demon king's reaction to meeting a rogue with the very bow that had sealed him again and again. Would history repeat itself?

"Sheik – " Vaati began. Bringing Sheik along was a terrible idea. He knew this. He'd always known this. It was for selfish reasons that he was allowing the rogue to stay, but…

It would be a small kindness to prevent this Zelda, this Sheik, from getting involved in another cycle that seemed to be stirring. Waking.

Sheik stopped, but it wasn't to turn and listen to the sorcerer. Suddenly, he whirled around and ducked quickly behind cover, dragging Vaati over as well to hide. The mage was about to ask loudly what was going on, but he remained quiet when he saw the tenseness in Sheik's shoulders as he listened carefully to something approaching up ahead.

And then Vaati heard it; the crackle of snapping branches and the groan of trees being pushed down into the earth. The fact that Sheik had caught the sound before he did surprised him, and he allowed himself to admit (briefly) that perhaps he hadn't given him enough credit in being able to handle himself. They waited awhile to identify what was coming towards them. As the commotion came closer to where they were, they eventually heard a distinct shout, a human voice amidst the crashing trees. Vaati felt a brush against his shoulders, and noticed that Sheik was making to run out of cover to help the person calling for help. Immediately, Vaati grabbed him firmly by the wrist and pulled him back down behind the gnarled tree they were crouched behind, and shot him a stern glare. They were here to search, not to save.

A deafening shriek pierced through the air, causing startled guays to fly out of the trees. Amidst the shriek was another shout, closer this time, and a young man came into view. His uneven gait indicated that he was badly injured; he wouldn't have much time left before he was caught by whatever it was that was chasing him.

As soon as the man came into view, Sheik twisted out of Vaati's grip, jumping out of cover to help him. He ignored Vaati swearing behind him as he ran towards the man, and as he did so he saw a dark shadow looming towards him through the mist. His heart stopped for a split second in fear when he caught a glimpse of a maw that could swallow him whole, but he willed his legs to keep running. Sheik couldn't tell what kind of monster it was just yet, but he threw a smokescreen in the hopes that it would be enough to help him get away with the man.

And the young man was… he was bleeding. The bleeding was abnormal. It was too  _real_. Normally in Asphodel, blood was only ever represented as small cuts and scrapes, and gore was not something that was ever really shown. It was less traumatic that way, and was one of the few things that Asphodel developers had made a point not to make too real. As Sheik hooked his arm underneath the man's shoulders to help support him, he noticed, too, the acid burns eating away at the furs lining the armor. Warrior, Sheik guessed, and the middling defense of armor suited for warriors had not been enough to stave off burning acid and -

_Dear Nayru those spines…_

Two large spines as long as his arm had punctured the poor man, one on his left thigh and the other below his shoulder blade. Attacks were never supposed to stick like that. Asphodel aimed to reflect reality as close as it could, except for injuries and death which could be traumatic. This was too real. Too real.

Did Sonya and Veran know about this? Surely they would have told them if they'd known – was this a recent development, then?

"I-I just wanted to… to see," the man stammered, shaken. "I wanted to see…"

A roar. A crash. An eyeless jaw snaked into view as it snapped trees in its way like toothpicks. There were more nearby. Four heads.

_Manhandla._

Sheik dragged the man away from the monstrous, carnivorous plant. He was nearly thrown to the ground when the man's legs gave out, pulling Sheik with him. The rogue cursed under his breath, trying to help the man back onto his feet, and he winced when the acid drooling from the creature's jaws splashed against his skin. It hurt only as much as sandpaper running along his skin, but he saw his health drop significantly with contact. They could not linger.

_Manhandla isn't supposed to be out here in the Lost Woods, it's a boss native to the Necluda Swamps. The rumors of the roaming raid bosses… it must be true._

Without warning, he felt the man leaning against him pulled violently backwards. As he whirled around to see what had happened, Sheik felt something wrap tightly around his ankles. The vine flung him back towards the monster, and he felt himself thrown up into the air by his feet. He shouted as branches whipped across his face as he was pulled by the vines, and he tried to get his bearings while the monster swung him around in the air. Chills ran down his neck when he saw jaws snapping towards him.

Lightning quick fingers moving on instinct, Sheik grabbed a dagger from his belt and slashed through the vine holding him, and he fell just in time as the head of the man-eating plant snapped its jaws where he'd been moments ago. It would have snapped him in half.

Falling.

Falling.

He braced for impact. But rather than the undoubtedly painful slam against the earth, Sheik felt his descent slow, and his body was guided slowly in an upright position until his feet were placed gently back down onto the soft soil.

A flash of sparks. A wrathful force of wind screaming through the trees. Flames blazing up around the monster in an instant, the smell of smoky oak with an acrid tinge rising with it. And in the center of it all was Vaati, palms crackling still with powerful magic and his cold gaze lit with the fire around him. He floated just a few inches off of the ground – a subtle and unnecessary show of power – and he placed himself decisively between the blazing bonfire and the rogue.

From within the burning mass something writhed, and with one last, final effort one of the Manhandla's great heads roared towards the mage. It took but a casual flick of Vaati's hand for the wind to suddenly slam against the monster's neck from the side, a brutal cannon of pressurized air that ripped the head away. Headless, the neck shuddered, and then fell with a thud at Vaati's feet.

It took a few seconds for Sheik to realize that he'd been staring at Vaati, and a chill ran through him upon processing what he'd just seen. He'd seen a glimpse of Vaati's power before, when he'd first met him in Asphodel, but it had been nothing like this. This hadn't been a fight as much as it had been an inconvenience, a waste of time to be ended with brutal haste. This had been focused wrath, the intent to kill guiding the sorcerer's every move. Sheik could almost feel it, a malice so great that he was almost afraid that it would physically manifest.

And now that malice was focused on him.

Vaati said nothing, except to keep Sheik in place with an accusatory glare. "I told you not to go out," the glare seemed to say, "And you did not listen."

Sheik opened his mouth to defend himself, but found himself faltering when Vaati's cold gaze reminded him of what had been said earlier: "You are being troublesome." A bother. He should leave.

He broke his gaze, not so much in shame as in frustration. He knew he wasn't wrong, he knew he could help. He –

His eyes fell on a peculiar shape within the crackling embers of the Manhandla. Something trapped within the creature's jaws. Flesh. The man he'd tried to save. And then Sheik's eyes steeled as he turned to face Vaati once more, no longer ashamed to look at him. "You could have saved him. You didn't have to burn him with that creature."

A wicked, bitter cynicism flickered from behind Vaati's cowl. "He is not my priority," he scoffed, "nor is he yours. His  _life_ ," and here Vaati paused, contempt dripping at the word like it angered him to suggest that the player's existence was something real, "does not have the same value as ours."

"But you didn't  _have t-_ "

"A  _lesson_ ," Vaati cut him shortly. Leaves dry from the recent fire crumpled under his heels as he dropped to the ground and strode over to Sheik. "You decided to help him, and nearly had yourself killed were it not for me. You forced me to act, to  _save you,_  where I would have had no reason to had I been alone.  _You_ ," he repeated, "are troublesome. You should leave."

The words stung, but he wasn't willing to let this go so easily. He knew it was dangerous, but he had to be here. There was a feeling in his gut that if he left Vaati here, it would be the last time he saw him. He tried to speak, but Vaati had expected it and refused to give him the time to gather his words.

"Do you not sense it? The air around you, it is different here. It whispers. It breathes. This corner of the world is more alive, and it ripples with the kind of energy that hasn't skimmed my flesh in hundreds of years."

Sheik stood up, pulling away the thick vine that was still wrapped around his ankle. Stiffly he walked past Vaati, trying to stubbornly ignore him. He could hear footsteps following close behind as Vaati trailed after, and he frowned as he quickened his pace in the direction they'd been headed. He stepped around Manhandla's burning corpse, careful not to let the flames that were still dancing across it to catch on his clothes. It was not long after, however, that his steps slowed. The trees were thinner up ahead, though the fog remained as thick as ever. Through the mist, Sheik saw a sight that made him hold his breath.

The ground was littered with the bodies of players. Like the man they had met earlier, each was torn, ripped, burned, and mangled in a way that Asphodel should not have allowed. It was -

"For some reason, this corner of the world is more  _real_ ," Vaati said.

Sheik only heard Vaati walk next to him, for his gaze was locked on the dozens of bodies scattered on the ground. He'd been concerned about Veran and Sonya's explanation about players losing permanent access to their accounts after dying in regions beyond the Lost Woods, but he hadn't been disturbed by it then as he was now. When players died in Asphodel, their corpses weren't supposed to remain on the ground; they were supposed to disappear after some time once the player respawned. Seeing these bodies… it was almost like the players had actually died. It was a silly thought of course, even though he could sense exactly what Vaati had been talking about earlier with how things felt real. The air was strange here, but dying? Being locked out of the game wasn't the same as dying. Death wasn't supposed to be real in this world, not like how it was out there.

Out there, with the empty seat at the dining table. The once delicate lullabies now deafeningly quiet. The stifling silence of an empty house reminding him of what had been lost.

Death wasn't real here. It wasn't supposed to be. It wasn't real for him. It wasn't-

"You are not used to death."

Sheik could feel Vaati's eyes on him, though not with that cold anger he'd shown earlier. It was patronizing. He wasn't sure what was worse.

"You fight, and you 'die,' often enough that you have become desensitized to it. There are no consequences here, for you can always wake up and return to try again. For this reason you jump into danger without a second thought, and do not stop to think about the cost of sacrificing yourself." The sorcerer walked slowly around him until he was standing in front of him. Vaati studied him for a few seconds more, and then said with quiet sternness, "You are too dangerous."

"And what about you?" Sheik lashed at him. "What will I do if you die and end up like one of these bodies? If  _Sheik_  dies I can always come back. I can make another account and come back, but we don't know what will happen to you.  _This may be real to you, but this isn't real to me!_ "

Sheik knew he'd made a mistake as soon as the words fell from his lips. His choice of words had been hasty and poor, and ignorantly inconsiderate in the heat of the moment. He saw hurt that he'd never thought to see on the proud sorcerer's face, and though it had been brief he knew he had not imagined it. In a split second the sorcerer's expression steeled, and a shadow passed over his face as anger bubbled to the surface.

"You are right, of course. I was mistaken about you." Vaati said after some time. His voice was quiet but carried the cruelty of a blade laced with poison. However, it was a venom potent only to hide the pain of his own wounds. "You aren't real."

"Vaati I – "

"Leave me. We are done here."

"Vaati that's not what I –"

Without warning, a powerful blast discharged from Vaati's fingertips, and Sheik flinched backwards in surprise. Though it hadn't been aimed at him and rather something to their left, he doubted himself and peered from under the arm he'd raised to shield himself with. Dust swirled with the natural fog, mixed with the smoke from the lingering flames dancing along Manhandla's corpse. A silhouette of a large creature was faintly visible. It lay still, pinned into the trunks of an ancient tree and was about ten feet across. Green glowing particles swirled around what appeared to be great insect wings, tattered and bent from Vaati's attack. An insect. Moth.

Mothula?

 _Another raid boss, this one is a native to the Lost Woods but it shouldn't be out here. Wait,_  Sheik frowned as he tried to recall the guides Hilda had shown him on the regional raid bosses,  _Mothula attacks with illusions, doesn't it? That means…_

His head snapped towards where Vaati was, and his breath caught on his throat when he saw another enormous moth hanging upside down on a branch directly above the sorcerer. The wings were a dull, dark green and black, blending into the faded colors of the woods. Suddenly, however, it flashed a bright luminescent green, revealing swirls and eye-like patterns across its ten-foot wingspan, and glowing dust showered on the mage below.

" _Vaati!_ " Sheik shouted as he dashed forwards, but the warning came too late. He was forced to dig his heels into the earth and retreat when he felt his throat burn from some of the dust he'd breathed. His health flashed red in warning out of the corner of his eye. Coughing, he brought the cloth around his neck up to shield his face from the harmful dust, and he frantically tried to see what had happened to Vaati. To his dismay, he saw the sorcerer lying on the ground, his limbs twitching involuntarily from time to time from the paralysis inflicted by the moth's dust. Vaati had suffered the full brunt of the attack, and as powerful as the mage was, it was clear that he wasn't immune to the monster's status effects. The sorcerer could only seethe where he lay, helplessly immobile.

 _Mothula's paralysis lasts for five minutes. It can disorient attackers with illusions and inflict a powerful area of effect poison that slowly saps your health. It also attacks with energy beams,_  Sheik thought quickly, trying to remember what he knew of the monster.

_Damn it… I have to do something, but I can't approach Vaati carelessly while Mothula's paralyzing dust is still there._

The light from the creature caused the particles floating in the air to glow green. The green gradually turned a darker and darker shade of purple, and though Sheik had never fought this monster before he recognized the pattern from what he'd read from the raid guides.

_Deadly poison that saps your strength, slows your reactions, and burns away your health._

With a snarl, Sheik dove towards Vaati, covering his face with one hand to protect it from the noxious dust and reaching for the sorcerer with the other. He coughed violently as the dust kicked up around him, but he kept running until he reached Vaati. If the fumes burned his throat more than they should have, Sheik ignored it – that was something to dwell on another time, when they were out of danger.

Fingers were slipping and he could feel strength slowly leaving from his shoulders and legs as the poison started to take effect. Just before his legs buckled completely he dragged the sorcerer away from the cloud, and they both collapsed just a few feet away from where the moth was perched.

It stung. The pain came gradually, but there was a burning in his eyes and nose. His throat felt like it was clamping up, and all of this felt dangerously realistic to what Asphodel was supposed to allow. And then the sensation was dulled by a terrifying thought; the thought that death could be real for…

Sheik's gaze darted to Vaati next to him. The sorcerer had been shielded from most of the poison attack thanks to him, but he remained vulnerable from paralysis.  _Five minutes_.

Movement. A gust brushed past his shoulders, and when he looked up he saw that Mothula had vanished from where it had been earlier. Instead, he sensed two, no three creatures on either side of them as well as behind. More illusions mixed with the real one, and it was going to attack them again. He had to at least fend them off until Vaati could recover. Until then he had to keep them away from the sorcerer.

Mothula wasn't a difficult boss, as far as raid bosses went. The recommended party was a size of six players. Fighting it alone was another matter entirely, but if he could just hold out for five minutes then…

He ignored the slurred growl of his name as Vaati tried to stop him. There was a flash to his left, a single glowing yellow eye set between two feathery antennae. He sidestepped a scorching ray that soon followed, though he felt the attack graze his right shoulder when his movements proved much slower than he'd anticipated. As he did so, he threw some daggers at the creature that had attacked, and he swore under his breath when it vanished when it proved to be no more than an illusion. Quickly he spun to attack the next, but dizziness gripped him and he staggered, stumbling to his knees.

_Took too much of the poison._

He reached for his bag. Antidote. A phial of antidote and he could curb the poison's effects. His fingers reached, but he was thrown off his feet, and pain seared the side of his ribs when an energy ray struck him cleanly. He cried out when the force of it slammed him against a tree, and he fell back to the ground disoriented. His vision was clouded and… red. Blood?

He wasn't thinking clearly. The poison. Reaching for the antidote had been a mistake. Poor judgment calls. Need the antidote but he couldn't think clearly. His throat still burned.

A weapon. Something. Sheik somehow managed to pull out his bow, though he remained collapsed onto the ground with his back unsteadily supported by the tree he'd slammed into. Crow's feet wrinkled between his brows as they knitted together in anger. His fingers weren't  _responding_  the way they were supposed to. The arrow kept falling clumsily against the string and his aim… Farore he couldn't focus on what he was aiming at.

Across from him, he saw Vaati struggling to fight against the paralysis that incapacitated him. The clock read one minute since the dust had taken effect. Only one? It had seemed like more.

Four minutes left.

He had to stop Mothula for four more minutes.

He pulled back the string and fired, aiming at what he thought was the monster or its illusion. He didn't know. He didn't have the strength for the bow in his current state, and so the arrow fell pathetically to his feet while his hands fumbled with the weapon.

No, that time he should have taken the antidote. He'd had enough time. Another missed call. He couldn't think clearly, not like this. He could fight better than this. He  _needed_  to fight better than this.

Movement. One of the moths took an interest in the weak target, the sorcerer. It appeared suddenly through the fog, and then dove towards Vaati, grabbing him with its legs and pulling him up into the air. Its single eye glowed, and long pincered fangs as large as a man's arm suddenly appeared on its face. It could bite through Vaati's neck.

It was going to bite through Vaati's neck.

He saw Vaati's face contorted into pure fury as he stared down the creature holding him, but his limbs were limp and unresponsive. Then Sheik saw something else that sent chills down his spine. There was uncertainty, and a fear that came with the uncertainty. For a fraction of a second Vaati glanced away from the monster and their gaze met, and then Sheik knew: Vaati wasn't as invincible as he made it out to be.

If Vaati died here, could he come back?

Vaati's words from earlier echoed in his head.  _For some reason, this corner of the world is more real._

Then death…?

_No._

Sheik wasn't sure what happened next. It was almost like time had stopped, the world around him grinding to a halt with a deafening silence ringing in his ears. He remembered anger and frustration. Desperation. He knew there was nothing he could do to save Vaati, and he'd willed a wish for time to stop and…

A song. A voice. A lullaby that was foreign yet somehow familiar that drifted in the distance of the world that had washed out into monochrome grey. Was it in the distance? At times it almost sounded like it was right beside him or, no, from within. A flicker of a memory. Words he'd never spoken, but ones that he was almost certain he'd repeated once before fell softly from his lips.

" _In my hour of need, grant me light."_

Color blossomed, bleeding from his now glowing palms like paint falling on a droplet of water. A golden triangle was gleaming on the back of his hand, its radiance branching all along the Bow of Light that Sonya had given him. He pulled the string back calmly, all hints of poison vanishing as his aim remained unwavering, and the arrow notched to it was a pure golden energy.

" _Grant me the light to banish evil."_

The light parted the fog, and a brilliant flash blinded the area as the arrow shot forward. In an instant, Mothula and its illusions disintegrated from its power, its dust transformed into gold shimmering in the air. As the gold settled around them, Sheik's taut expression slowly, cautiously relaxed before pulling together again into one of confusion. He looked down at the bow in his hands, no longer glowing with light. His right hand, too, was missing the triangular mark he'd seen moments ago. Then, he looked up once more towards Vaati. The sorcerer was staring at him with a muddled expression, a mixture of surprise falling back into an unreadable, shadowed gaze like he was determined not to reveal emotion. Even so, Sheik saw it; the confusion, concern, and… perhaps even fear, though it was unclear if he was fearful for him or  _of_  him.

He'd… somehow defeated the monster in one attack.

And then it came back; the dull pain and the numbness from the poison that had vanished moments ago. Mercifully it distracted him from the confusing thoughts surrounding what had happened just now, and of the way Vaati was looking at him. He sunk lower onto the earth to let his legs rest and he took a deep breath. His sides still burned from where the ray had scorched him earlier, and he could feel the blood running from the cut on his forehead coagulating into sticky lumps. With what energy remained, he finally pulled a bottle of antidote from his bag and took a swig, and he felt the weakness in his limbs gradually lift as the effects of the poison went away.

He wanted to rest his eyes.

 _Five minutes_.

Footsteps.

His heavy lids lifted, and he looked up to see that Vaati had dragged himself towards where he sat, the paralysis binding him gone. His expression was difficult to pin down, though anger was definitely one of them. The sorcerer seemed to want to say something from the way his jaws clenched and unclenched, but was struggling to know where to start. Finally, the faintest sign of pain that Sheik had seen just before they'd been attacked by Mothula flickered behind the anger in his eyes and he shook his head, his shoulders dropping disappointedly as he turned his heel without another word.

Sheik's gaze refocused when he remembered the hurtful words he'd flung earlier.  _Ah_. They'd been arguing about how he would put himself in harm's way for the sake of other people, and it had ended with him insensitively saying that this world was not real. It had been poorly worded. A mistake he regretted saying. For Sheik to be as beaten as he was now, it only cemented the words he'd said as truth in Vaati's mind.

Tired though he was, Sheik pushed himself to his feet and ignored the pain that jabbed at his ribs. "Vaati…"

The sorcerer kept walking away.

"I am sorry, I didn't mean what I said earlier."

Footsteps slowed but they continued to move forward.

"This world isn't real to me, but that… isn't what I meant. If I die here I will still be alive out there, in the physical world. What I meant is that this world isn't real to me, like it is for you, who only has this world to be able to touch things. Feel things. Breathe and sleep. If I die here I won't really be gone, but you. I don't know what will happen to you."

Silence fell as the footsteps stopped. Vaati still had his back to him, but his head was turned slightly. With his long bangs covering his face it was difficult to gauge his expression, but it was clear that he was listening closely now. Waiting. Judging.

"But in some ways, this world  _is_  real to me. Sheik is sometimes more real to me than Zelda is," Sheik continued. A small tremor crept into his voice, and his own earnestness surprised him. Vaati must have caught it, too, for this time the sorcerer turned enough so that his back wasn't to him. "I can be myself, here. Sheik doesn't have expectations that he can't uphold."

The sorcerer stirred, his chest rising and falling in a silent sigh. He raised his head and their eyes met. Anger had dulled into something more subdued.

"You weren't mistaken, Vaati. Me, I  _am_  real. I don't want to lose myself here," the tremor broke to a nervous, pained laugh. It was partly because the burns along his ribs jabbed at him with every breath, partly because of the emotion that poured from the fear and vulnerability of his words. "But more than that I don't want to lose you if it means you can't come back."

Sheik held his breath, waiting for Vaati to respond while the sorcerer studied him for some time in silence. He couldn't quite tell what the other was thinking, except to notice that the tension that pulled Vaati's brows into a glare had gone. Finally, the sorcerer moved in measured steps towards him until he was right in front of him.

The same hand that had set Manhandla ablaze in an instant reached for Sheik's with the care of handling delicate glass. "I warned you before," Vaati said, "you nearly died." He spoke quietly this time, without anger or frustration from their argument before. He traced the back of Sheik's hand where the glowing triangle had been with his thumb, a look of something like regret on his face.

"And so did you," Sheik replied.

This time, Vaati did not argue. It would have been pointless to, for Sheik had already seen that moment of uncertainty in Vaati's eyes when Mothula had been ready to snap his neck in half. It was only because of Sheik that they were here to have this conversation, and they both knew this.

Instead, Sheik felt the smooth, uncalloused fingers leave his, only to trail along his arms, then to his shoulders like they were tracing each line along them. They lifted a moment to find the slope of his jaw, palms warm from fire sliding against his cheek. Fingers softly brushed the bangs that fell over his face, following their lines until they were hooked against his ear. Gentle studying, learning the contours through touch like etching it into memory.

"This isn't real," Vaati repeated, "But you, you are."

The moment reminded Sheik of the first time he'd met the sorcerer in Asphodel. The same sort of tactile inquiry as though he were trying to figure out what was real and what was not. A fascination apparent with every stroke like it was the first time something warm had touched the mage's fingers. It was like he was trying to remember and hold on to the sensation of what was real when it could be found. Back then, Vaati had swiftly ended him with his blade, dismissing what he'd concluded to be disingenuous. The cold cruel wrath threatening to burst then, however, was missing now.

The sorcerer's hand still lingered on the rogue's face. He wasn't looking at Sheik now, so much as he was looking past him with a distant expression like he was talking more to himself now. "You are the only thing that is real to me here. You are not, but you are. At least more so than anything else. Nothing else has real consequences. Nothing else matters, and if you disappear from this world then…"

He trailed off. Sheik saw his gaze become more focused now, like he was coming back from whatever thoughts he'd become lost in. Sheik's breath froze when red eyes darted up towards his, and in that moment he was taken aback by their intensity and emotion.  _Emotion_  other than the hateful wrath, a confused combination of tortured agony, fear, and longing. An expression of humanity so contrasted from the modular blinks of the SS that it was jarring. So closed off was Vaati, normally, that this sudden vulnerability took Sheik by surprise, and he feared that if he so much as breathed he would break whatever spell it was that had taken hold of the sorcerer.

What was this?

He could still feel the warmth pressed lightly against his skin. A closeness that wasn't uncomfortable or threatening like the first time, but still with a hint of risk that encouraged adrenaline. The silence was tense and expectant, though it was unclear what it was they were waiting for.

A moment, pulling him, drawing him in-

And then it was gone.

The softness in Vaati's eyes had become shut out once again with an impenetrable, icy curtain. His expression hardened and he pulled away, almost a little too abruptly like he'd been jolted awake with a splash of cold water. The sorcerer stiffly turned, his cape snapping behind him. Even so, there was an uncertainty in his voice that lingered, perhaps ashamed and disturbed by his moment of weakness.

"I… ask that you be more careful," he said. He allowed Sheik to follow him this time, no longer able or wanting to argue against his presence.

Sheik blinked, and he stared after the sorcerer. His feet were frozen, and his hands were shaking slightly from the brief but intense moment that had passed. Then, he took a deep breath and shook his head, not quite understanding what had just happened.

Vaati didn't want him to be here because of the danger.

But there was something else the sorcerer was afraid of.


	16. Fractured

"And we will continue where we left off in the next lecture."

Zelda blinked, her fingers hovering just over the keypad connected to the screen of her SS. She glanced at the sparse page where she was supposed to have been taking notes, but there were only a few confused, disjointed sentences about things she'd only been half paying attention to. There was something about the "Arbiter's… Gr?" And also something about ancient nomadic Gerudo, but the shorthand she'd thought she could figure out later was already a mystery not even an hour past since she wrote them down. She stared at her notes for some time with a helpless frown, almost expectantly waiting for Vaati to fill in the messy shorthand of her notes into something neater, but the blinking cursor remained unmoving after the last period.

Vaati was not with her. There was a pit in her gut when she remembered that fact, and then another buildup of a sigh settled in her throat when she thought about how…  _attached_  she'd become in the month or so she'd known him. She'd gotten used to how he was always there, taking part in her daily routine. At first he'd been distant but she'd noticed how he'd been gradually becoming more involved and taking an interest in life outside of the digital world, like taking lecture notes with her and making observations about the things he saw through the camera clipped to her collar. Now that he was gone it felt unexpectedly quiet, like someone had muffled the sound of ambient noise that she hadn't realized she'd found comfort in. It wasn't that he'd been loud, because he wasn't, but the absence of his presence was like the empty chair next to her at the dining room table.

Anxiety rose in her chest, then, but she quickly fought the feeling down. He was going to be okay. It was only for a few hours, not even a day, and he'd promised he would wait for her before doing anything rash.

Vaati was currently logged in Asphodel, and that was where she'd last seen him. The encounter with Mothula had broken their confidence and made progress slow, but they hadn't had to wander too far before they'd discovered the edge of the forest. Sonya and Veran had warned them about a physical border that they would encounter, but also that there should be some kind of passage that led beyond it. It was, they had explained, a wrinkle in the world's programming that hadn't existed prior to the rumors of the rogue NPC, which meant that the man they were looking for was likely beyond it. Indeed they'd found it: a thick mesh of trees that gnarled together so closely that the branches and trunks created an impenetrable wall, but also a single spot where the trunks twisted away, parting to reveal a dark tunnel that provided passage through them. The wall of trees grew tall and then curled over to create a ceiling that Vaati could not fly over. The tunnel was their only way forward, and the compass they had pointed directly towards it.

"I will remain here," Vaati had told her when she'd tried to log out of the game to rest. "This place does not follow the normal laws of the," he'd paused uneasily before uttering the next word distastefully, "game. We do not know if we will return to the same place, here, if we are both to leave."

Zelda knew he was right. Already they'd seen how Asphodel was behaving not the way the original creators had intended in this corner of the Lost Woods; it was reasonable to expect 'respawn points' to not exist in this area. At least with Vaati remaining in the game, it would be possible for Sheik to spawn near him as a linked party member.

"I promise I will wait for you," Vaati had said.

And so Zelda had returned to the 'real' world, alone. She had a bad feeling in her gut that Vaati hadn't told her the truth, as much as she'd wanted to trust him. He was rash and, worse, stubborn. Though he'd become more open to the idea of accepting Sheik to accompany him after he'd nearly died to Mothula, Zelda had seen the grudging reluctance on his face that still wasn't entirely convinced about having company. Did she really think that Vaati would stay put in one place for over ten hours while he waited for her to come back after real life obligations?

_Vaati you had better not budge an inch while I'm gone…_

"Hey you."

Startled, Zelda whipped her head around towards the voice, and then she blinked when she realized she was one of the last ones left in the auditorium. Most of the class had already filed out, save for those who'd remained to ask the professor questions. Hilda was standing over her, still wearing the baseball cap and bandana she'd become fond of ever since they'd snuck into Nindoten. It was a 'team uniform,' she'd said. One eyebrow was slightly arched out of questioning concern from underneath the cap's rim.

"Sorry! Just, lost in thought haha," Zelda said, standing up and hurriedly stuffing her SS into her bag. She flashed a smile as a preemptive 'I'm okay,' to the question she knew Hilda had been about to ask.

Hilda knew her long enough, however, that she wasn't buying it. "How was it last night, is everything okay?" She asked as she followed Zelda out of the auditorium.

"Yes," the blonde replied immediately. A pause, and then a small tired sigh. "No…"

Hilda only nodded, and then looked around until a quiet spot away from people caught her eye. The two made their way over to the corner of the hall near the emergency stairs where few students walked past. There was a large bay window overlooking the rest of the campus, and the two sat on the windowsill while Zelda explained what had happened in Asphodel the night before.

"Oh, uh. Wow that sounds like a lot," Hilda grimaced when her friend finished telling her about their troubles in the game. "You're  _sure_  you're not hurt?" she asked. The concern hadn't left her face since Zelda had told her about the dead players and how 'real' things had seemed.

"Do you think Sonya knows about this? I feel like she would have warned us if she'd known."

Hilda pulled out her SS and tapped the screen with a frown. The device lit up in welcome and she flipped through what looked like an address book. "If she'd known and didn't tell you then I'm going to let her have it," she huffed, "but maybe she didn't know. I'll ask her and we'll hope she has a good answer."

Zelda arched a brow when she heard the SS ring while the call connected. "Just like that?"

"Mmm?"

"You're going to call the president of Nindoten, just like that?" Zelda repeated incredulously. Her friend shrugged.

"Sure, I've got her personal number."

Zelda continued to watch Hilda with a flat expression. It hadn't even been a week since they'd met Sonya and Veran, and Hilda had made her dislike of them fairly clear from the start, especially since they'd hurt her friend. The surprise wasn't, however, from the fact that Hilda had Sonya's number, because they'd all exchanged contact information. The surprise was in how little hesitation she had in speaking with them.

Noting Zelda's suspicious expression, Hilda waved a hand in front of the blonde's face as though to wipe her frown away. "Sonya's fine. I've been talking to her a lot these past two days and she seems okay. Veran though…"

Hilda's response surprised Zelda. Her friend hadn't told her anything about keeping in touch with Sonya and Veran, or what it was that they'd been talking about. Of course Zelda had been too busy talking, planning, and arguing with Vaati over their journey to find Ganondorf to notice what Hilda was up to. Her frown deepened when she remembered Veran mentioning getting Hilda involved: she hadn't really thought that the sorceress would reach out to Hilda so soon. "She did say there was something she wanted to help you with," Zelda prompted.

Hilda blinked in that same way someone clearly feigning ignorance would blink: exaggeratedly wide eyes, a small shake of her head and her mouth pausing at an 'o' for a split second before curling up into a deflecting smile. She began to nod, to follow up on Zelda's comment, but then a voice came through on the speaker phone from SS in her hand, and she shook her head in exaggerated disappointment that she would have to elaborate some other time. There was definitely something Hilda wasn't telling her.

"Yes?"

"Hello? Is this Sonya?"

"Sonya's busy. What is it?" Veran asked, and then added excitedly "Did you find something?"

"No, not yet," Hilda said, sharply glancing over her shoulder towards Zelda before turning back to the call. "Zelda's with me right now and she saw something concerning in Asphodel. We really want to talk to Sonya about it."

"Whatever you and… Zelda, want to tell her you can tell me." The sorceress emphasized her name like it was a nuisance, and not one she'd been eager to hear. The disappointment in Veran's voice was not lost on Zelda, and she cocked her head slightly, still suspicious of what it was that Hilda had involved herself in. Find something? What were they looking for that they hadn't told either her or Vaati about…?

Veran continued with a huff, "Oh, but if this is about the mess about things becoming 'more real' in certain areas of the Lost Woods, we are both quite aware of it by now."

"You couldn't warn us about it before?" Zelda asked, to which Veran replied immediately with a haughty laugh.

"Ha! Why, do you really think that after making sure you were as equipped as you could possibly be we would fail to tell you something so important? Or that we would be so careless as to forget to tell you such a crucial matter? Don't take us for fools, dear, we did not tell you because we did not  _know_."

Zelda glanced over towards Hilda. Her friend rolled her eyes and shook her head. Thankfully the camera was off and Veran couldn't see them.

"Okay, then what do you know about it now? Vaati and I need to know as much about this development as we can," Zelda said.

Though she didn't know Veran too well yet, Zelda had had an impression of the sorceress being someone who did not lose composure very easily. The sorceress was proud, even a little vain perhaps, and was confident in her ability to handle situations with calculated poise. Veran's lack of patience in her voice now suggested that her and Sonya were having a lot to deal with at the moment. "I  _know_  that that the complaints about 'damages' done is ridiculous, and those gossiping idiots are just disgusting vultures waiting to pick off what they think is an injured animal. The nerve of them. Headlines, are they called these days? They want headlines I'll show them what happens when they want headlines. None of the so-called victims suffered any physical damages anyway, and those people calling 'trauma'… I'll shut them up with something I can find under the terms of service." Veran didn't elaborate any further, but Zelda could already guess what kind of chaos the company had dealt with in the last twenty four hours with people experiencing a 'more realistic' death in the Lost Woods than before. It had been terrifying for Zelda even though she'd become somewhat used to dealing with the magically unexpected; she couldn't imagine what kind of panic the unsuspecting would have experienced.

"Were those people okay? The ones affected, I mean," Zelda asked.

"They're still alive well enough to complain. As far as I'm concerned they are more than okay."

"Did they have stuff like this back in your day?" Hilda asked with a sly grin. She leaned back against the wall, flicking her cap with a thumb, clearly enjoying Veran's lapse of control. "It sounds like you're learning all about modern legal acrobatics quickly, Veran."

"I've dealt with worse political drama in my life. I  _will_  take care of this," Veran snapped from the device. "If we knew this was going to happen we would have made the Lost Woods inaccessible to the other players much sooner. Before it was simply people losing account access, and nothing about the world becoming more… real. What does that even mean?" she rounded on Zelda, then, demanding answers for her frustration.

Zelda bit her lip, thinking hard about the question. It was a difficult sensation to describe, but she knew exactly what Vaati meant when he went on about how things weren't real. But back there, in the Lost Woods? There was something different about that place that made everything seem alive. It was like there had been some kind of invisible force dwelling within the trees, the earth, and the very air. "I'm not sure how else to describe it. Injury mechanics that weren't there before like excessive bleeding, and small things like, I don't know," she opened and closed her hands, grasping for words, "the way the air moved, the way the light scattered through the leaves. I can't tell you a specific detail but when you put everything together it just felt more real."

There was a few seconds of silence while Veran seemed to take in everything Zelda had just said. Zelda could feel the skeptical stare through the screen, the sorceress judging her every word, and her lips flattened as the silence lengthened. Eventually, Veran sighed, a long draw of soft static.

"I still find it difficult to believe that this has happened but, I know what it is you are describing," she said quietly. There was another pause, like she was thinking about something sobering. The moment was brief, however, and her voice quickly regained the firm, slightly demanding tone from before. "I have my own suspicions on what is going on. Is your sorcerer here? I would prefer to speak with him."

Zelda sat up straighter, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. She didn't like how Veran was reaching out to her friends without telling her, and she still wasn't convinced that Veran was above manipulating those close to her to get what she wanted while pretending they were all on the same side. She flashed a look at Hilda, who only shrugged and shook her head in confusion herself. Hilda didn't know why Veran needed to speak with Vaati either.

"Whatever you want to tell Vaati, you can tell me," she repeated Veran's line from earlier.

"Hmph. Cheeky brat," the sorceress scoffed. Still, there was some satisfaction beneath the sharpness of her tone, like she appreciated the small challenge. "Is he not there with you?"

"No."

"Interesting." Zelda could almost see the furtive grin and a long finger running over cold blue lips like it was holding in a whispered breath. "Very well, then do tell him this, for this information would be more useful to him than it will be to you," Veran said guilefully. "I believe Ganondorf is using the power of his Triforce to start something in Asphodel. What he intends, I am uncertain."

"The Triforce?"

There was a snort. "Like I said, this information is more useful to your mage than to you. I do not have the patience nor the time to sit here and explain the hundreds of years' worth of history your generation has forgotten. Perhaps your sorry purple dog can tell you all about it since he's so eager to tell you everything about everything."

 _Not everything,_  Zelda thought, her lips flattening a little. She did understand that Veran was still bitter that Vaati had revealed Caph's deal to Sonya, however. At least that had been something Vaati had been willing to reveal, even if he kept his past to himself.

Veran's lofty voice continued. "I would like to know his opinion about it. I need more information if we are to be prepared."

The Triforce. Zelda wasn't familiar to the name, though she wondered, vaguely, if it had been mentioned in one of her classes before. From what little Veran had told her of it so far, she could only guess that it was something magical. And powerful. What was it, if it could change the rules of reality within a world that wasn't supposed to be real? "I'll ask him."

"Good. Now is that all? Sonya needs my help more than you do."

Zelda indicated that they were done, and the call abruptly ended with Veran leaving impatiently. Beside her, Hilda exhaled, and then scratched her head as she put her SS away in her bag. "Veran sure is something, isn't she," she laughed lightly.

Zelda, too, breathed out, her back curling as the tension in her shoulders dissipated. Veran was… intense. Even when she was just a literal voice in a machine she had a very demanding presence that was difficult to ignore. She couldn't imagine what she would have been like as her old self, with an actual body. "Hilda, what is it that she's having you help her with?" She watched her friend carefully, still suspicious about her new association with the sorceress and Sonya.

"Oh don't worry about it, I've got it all handled. You have too much to worry about yourself," Hilda deflected. She hopped off the windowsill they'd been sitting against, and shouldered her bag to get ready to leave. Zelda followed closely after her.

" _Hilda_."

Hilda's dark braids whipped around as she turned to Zelda hurriedly. "It's nothing. Look," she smiled, and then placed both hands on her shoulders. She flashed that mischievous wink that Zelda knew Hilda made when she was getting herself in trouble. "It's a surprise, okay? For you. So I can't tell you yet, but when I'm all done I'll let you know."

"If you're doing something dangerous- " Zelda began, but Hilda interrupted her quickly.

"It's really nothing. Just looking for stuff from the old days that might have survived," she said, shaking her head. "Besides it's not like I'm much of a fighter to do anything really dangerous, right? I don't have some thousand-year-old sorceress in my SS who can turn me into a giant spider. It's just a bit of research, that's all."

" _Promise_  to tell me if Veran asks you to do something dangerous," Zelda insisted. What Hilda said was true, and especially because of those reasons it was suspicious that the sorceress wanted her involved at all. Maybe she was being paranoid, but…

"I promise!"

Zelda looked at Hilda's bright, beaming smile skeptically. She didn't want to consider her friend a liar, no, that word was too harsh. She wanted to trust her. She  _should_  trust her, but she also knew Hilda well enough to know that her friend was self-destructive when it came to helping those she cared about. Zelda had seen that look on Hilda's face when they'd learned about Caph; it had been that same look when Hilda had decided that she would help her sneak into Nindoten with one of the most reckless ideas ever.

"Don't worry about me, really. You have enough to worry about with Vaati too, don't you?"

Hilda punched her lightly on her arm, while she gave a sigh and conceded with a nod that was also a tired shake of her head.  _Right…_

Speaking of promises and Vaati, she had a bad feeling that the sorcerer wouldn't keep to his word about not wandering off without her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As soon as her last class was over, Zelda ran as fast as she could back home. She'd almost considered skipping her writing seminar class, but she knew she couldn't let herself fall to far behind on school work. And so she'd fidgeted in her seat for the entire hour before she'd mercifully been dismissed for the rest of the afternoon.

Not having the patience to wait for the apartment elevator, she sprinted up the stairs of her apartment complex instead. Of course, it could have been (and probably was) ultimately faster to wait for the elevator, but the idea of not being able to  _do_  anything made her restless. She needed to move, to be doing something to get back to Asphodel as fast as possible. Upon reaching her apartment, she shoved her boots off her foot, not caring that they went back neatly on their racks. She slowed down just a little in front of the kitchen, wondering if she shouldn't maybe get dinner over with early so she could have the rest of the night in Asphodel, but she picked up her pace again and rain up the stairs to her room.

She could have dinner later: she needed to check and make sure Vaati was still okay. He was probably fine, he'd  _promised_  he wouldn't do anything rash without her. He was fine. He had to be but, she had to make sure for herself…

Her SS in one hand, she tossed her bag to the corner of her room with the other. It whacked against her dresser, knocking down some clean laundry she'd piled there with the idea that she would fold them some day. Without wasting another minute, she jumped onto her bed, clicked the SS into its slot on the virtual reality headgear, jammed the machine down over her head and logged herself in to Asphodel.

_Please let everything be okay._

It was going to be okay. She would log on and find Vaati exactly where she'd left him the night before. She would ask him about his thoughts on the Triforce like Veran had wanted and they would be on their way once again, as planned.

Red eyes snapped open, now Sheik instead of Zelda. The rogue surveyed his surroundings, and a cold feeling gripped his chest when he found himself where he'd last been… but with Vaati nowhere in sight. Not wanting to believe what he saw, Sheik searched the area for any sign of the sorcerer in the foggy forest but he couldn't find anything. His only consolation was that he recognized no sign of struggle, and the fact that Vaati's name showed up in the party menu suggested he was alive at the very least, but frustration stifled him when he realized that it was likely that the sorcerer had wandered off somewhere through his own volition. His own impatient, reckless stupidity. Sheik's eyes shifted towards the tunnel they had found last night, embedded within the wall of trees. "Damn it Vaati, you said you wouldn't go on without me…"

He accessed his inventory menu, fingers fumbling from his hurry until he found the Roc's feather. Upon selecting it, a beautiful large white feather with a magical sheen floated down in front of him. Sheik took a deep breath, and then reached out and wrapped his fingers around the item.

Immediately saw his surroundings melt away as the feather warped him to wherever it was that Vaati had gone. The item was something that allowed players in a party to warp to the leader; the only downside being that in this case he could end up as far as a mile away from where Vaati actually was. This had been a mechanism to prevent players from cheating by summoning friends directly into boss raid rooms at full health, but in this case Sheik felt only impatience from the item's limitations.

The trees and the fog faded from his vision, only to be replaced by an eerie, texture-less darkness. He froze, his knees slightly bent in anticipation of danger, for the place he'd been teleported to was unlike anything he'd ever seen in Asphodel. He'd explored dozens of tunnels and caves with Hilda before, but this place was no ordinary cavern. It was dark. Black. There was nothing to see because there was nothing here, and even the air was cold like all the warmth was being sucked into the void. Assassins and rogues like him should have been able to see in darkness, for they had a special class perk that granted them a darkvision bonus, but even so he could see nothing in this deep black space. Cautiously he turned around, and he saw a small flicker of light in the distance behind him; an entrance, which he could only guess was the entrance they'd seen at the edge of the woods.

He remained still, listening closely for some kind of sound to orient him or warn him of potential danger, but not even the wind whistled through this place. He took a step forward, and his footsteps echoed far like there were no walls for the sound to bounce back off of. Nothing… there was nothing in this place, this void. He listened closely for a few more seconds, lacking confidence in wandering aimlessly in the darkness but knowing he had to find Vaati somewhere here.

And then he heard it. A disturbance in the air. A murmur. A voice?

His ears pricked, straining for its source until he heard it again, louder this time and straight ahead.  _Vaati?_

Sheik pulled a torch from his inventory, lighting it with a low-level fire spell to illuminate his steps. The light was mostly swallowed up by the void surrounding him, though it did reveal the eerily smooth and even dirt path beneath him. He'd suspected the light wouldn't reveal anything of his surroundings, but at the very least the presence of some stimulus gave him some comfort. He made his way carefully towards the source of the noise, and then quickened his pace when he saw the silhouette of a person he recognized up ahead.

It was Vaati, curled over and sitting on the ground and hugging his knees almost like he was…

_Terrified._

Vaati was speaking, muttering to himself in a voice that was so low it was barely discernible. "None of this is real. It's just the sword. The sword playing tricks," he murmured into his knee.

Sheik approached cautiously. Something was terribly, terribly wrong, though he could see no sign of physical injury on the sorcerer. There was something about him, though, that made him feel like it would be dangerous to get near him, even though he wanted nothing more than to do something to help the sorcerer with whatever it was that was causing him anxiety. "Vaati?" he asked slowly. He flinched back when Vaati lashed out without warning, voice rising to a shout though he made no other indication that he was aware that Sheik was even there.

"Foolish,  _foolish!_  To think that it was different this time," he snarled at the darkness, his eyes open but unseeing, wavering without focus. His lips were pulled back for but a moment in a defiant snarl, skin against his cheeks trembling from the tension in his jaws. Then, he sunk his head back down, clutching his knees tighter against his chest as he lowered his voice once more. "But it's the same. Back here, here again. Asphodel, Dragmire, Sheik, Zelda… all fabricated. None of this was real was it. Was it? The sword's creation… it was just a void. The void all along. Everything. All of it. That world I called fake… just something from my mind?"

"Vaati, I'm here," Sheik said more sharply this time. It was just like before, when he'd first met Vaati and thrown him in the darkness of his dresser drawer when he hadn't known what to do with him. This aimless rambling about the sword and the void… he'd forgotten how it had affected Vaati until now, and seeing the sorcerer break down like this in person was frightening. It wasn't just blinking lights anymore, but a person, a  _real_  person shaking and tense, breaths coming in short gasps and unable to see that they were no longer alone. He needed to get through to him somehow, but…

"Vaati, it's Shei-"

"It keeps happening. It keeps happening it keeps happening it  _keeps happening_." Vaati's arm suddenly waved vaguely, unsteadily in the emptiness in front of him. His wildly gesticulating arm caused his cloak to flap behind him, and before Sheik could take a step back the sorcerer's hands connected against his legs. The sudden touch caused Vaati to jerk his head upwards towards the rogue, eyes wide like a panicked animal's. His expression took Sheik aback, and the rogue instinctively took a step away out of fear.

Before Sheik could react, Vaati slowly, shakily pulled his hands back close to him. Fingers trembled slightly like a man trying to conceal how much he was falling apart. His elbows bent so that his hands moved against his temples, cradling a phantom headache before moving in small repetitive circles like he didn't know where to put his hands. His fingers clenched and unclenched against his forehead, and a small grin cracked along his face beneath his disheveled bangs. "I can't do this anymore," Vaati whispered, turning away from Sheik. Their eyes had met, but it was unclear that the sorcerer was aware of Sheik's presence. His voice became rambling once again, with words spilling out without focus. "I can't. Can I? I have to… but why. It's always the same. The same void. It gets worse. Thought it would get better." He froze completely, save for his lips that moved like he was saying something but not a sound could be heard. And then, after a few seconds his shoulders slumped and he began to ramble again. "I can't do this I can't do this I can't. I can't… I'm not myself anymore. Not myself I… can't trust myself anymore."

Sheik watched, helplessly horrified as Vaati suddenly dug his head in his knees while his hands gripped his head, fingers burying into his hair. The sorcerer's shoulders began to shake, and then without warning he began to laugh. It started quietly, a broken giggle that increased in volume to something that was between hysterical laughter and a dismal crow. Between fits of distraught laughter he repeated the same line about 'not being himself' before he went back to his fragmented hiccups.

Not completely sure of what to do, Sheik slowly crouched beside the broken man who seemed trapped within his own nightmare. He'd never seen anyone so fractured, and it scared him to see the normally stoic Vaati like this. Careful not to let the fire too close lest the sorcerer hurt himself, Sheik brought the torchlight slowly towards Vaati's face in an attempt to chase away the void that seemed to frighten him. Then, he gently, cautiously placed a hand on the sorcerer's shoulder. "I'm here, it's okay," he said. "It's going to be okay."

He watched as Vaati continued to snicker to himself, still not acknowledging that he was no longer alone. Sheik wasn't even sure if Vaati was in a state of mind where he could be made aware of what was going on around him. At the same time, the hysterical laughter gradually died down to subdued chuckles, interspersed with that same phrase of 'not myself' and rambling gibberish about the void.

Sheik sat down beside him from a crouch, and then dared to pull Vaati closer into his arms. "It's okay. I'm here, it's okay."

He almost expected Vaati to snap back to reality, pulling away abruptly and insisting he was fine. It worried him that the sorcerer did no such thing, instead allowing his arm to wrap around his shoulders. Vaati didn't even seem to notice that his weight was resting against Sheik's chest, and he continued to stare blankly into the darkness with a broken smile, an uncertain hand propped against his own forehead while he chuckled to himself.

The two remained in that position for some time until Vaati's snickers died down to silence, apparently having tired himself out to sleep. It was only after Sheik heard Vaati breathing in slow, even breaths that he allowed himself to exhale in relief. And then, exhausted himself, Sheik slowly laid himself onto the ground and closed his eyes, the sorcerer nestled against the crook of his arm.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Ahahahaha! And, as always, you are dressed in the shabbiest of rags."

_Huh…?_

Sheik looked around at his surroundings in confusion. He was no longer in the darkness of the mysterious tunnel, and instead seemed to be in the middle of some kind of scene. A dream…? For a dream it felt too vivid, and it seemed more like a memory, though it was like no memory he could remember himself. He couldn't move or seemed to have control of a body, and instead seemed to be floating in the air while the scene focused on a single character in particular.

A young man, dressed not unlike how Vaati was dressed in Asphodel, except his demeanor was so different from the Vaati that he knew that Sheik doubted that he represented the same person. The man had his arms crossed over his chest, chin raised over his purple and gold gilded collar with just enough angle to look down on the people he was addressing. He stood proudly and full of arrogance, his back straight with all the authority a single person could uphold.

He was very… dramatic. From his posture to even how his cape flapped in a wind that seemed too perfect for it to have been coincidence, it suggested that this man loved being the center of attention. Loud. Prideful.

"My curses are not to be mocked," the man (Vaati?) continued in a voice that was all too familiar, yet at the same time foreign. "The one I cast on you is most powerful. No matter what power you wield, you will never break it."

They seemed to be outside. The scene was blurry, but Sheik could catch glimpses of green hues and the bright blue of a noonday sky. The scene drifted in and out of focus with only the young man carrying clear details, but Sheik could also vaguely make out the individual the man seemed to be talking to. Or was it… two? He couldn't tell, except he could have sworn that the green hat on the other person's head had moved on its own, and was the source of the other voice. Elderly. Disappointed…

"You haven't changed in the slightest. I should never have created that cap."

"Fool! A hat that grants the wishes of its wearer is a spectacular creation!"

The scene wavered and broke focus, and the voices drifted in and out to an incomprehensible murmur. At the same time, a feeling rose in Sheik's chest. A pang of rage, mixed with tumultuous, arrogance pride and determination. It took him a few seconds of confusion to realize that these feelings weren't reflective of his own emotions, but perhaps matched more closely with the emotions of the characters he was watching. Of the man who looked so much like Vaati, but at the same time a person Sheik could not recognize.

_What am I watching…?_

The scene blurred, the colors fading and rearranging themselves into something new. He heard the young man's voice again, full of himself.

"You are a powerful individual yourself." They were at a balcony now, somewhere impossibly high. The man was leaning against some white stone railings, overlooking a boundless blue sky above the clouds. Above the clouds…? That was impossible, wasn't it? In front of him was another unfocused figure, though the silhouette suggested someone of a feminine build in a flowing pink dress. "And yet you do nothing but serve. What good is power when it does not grant you freedom?" the man continued with a derisive grin.

"It is precisely because of the power I wield that I am bound by responsibility to those who lack it." The woman replied patiently, like she'd explained this countless times before.

"A slave to the masses, then. Pathetic."

"I don't expect you to understand."

The man through his head back and laughed, the gold rim of his gaudy hat reflecting sunlight. "Ahahaha! Do you see this?" he spread his arms wide, his sleeves flapping in the wind. "I know freedom. Look upon me and tell me you are not at least a little envious."

The woman shifted her weight, clearly annoyed and uncomfortable. "What do you want, Vaati."

"The way you go about serving. Your existence bothers me."

_What?_

Sheik jerked awake from the familiar name, the vision vanishing in an instant. He spent several seconds looking out into the darkness of the tunnel he'd fallen asleep in. Then, he took a deep breath, trying to reorient himself after what he'd just seen. He glanced at the lower corner of his vision and activated Asphodel's interface to check the time.

_4:27AM… crap I must have fallen asleep without logging off._

He closed his eyes and then exhaled again, calming himself after what he'd just seen. He wasn't sure what those visions had been, but maybe that was just something weird that happened when he let himself fall asleep while he was still in the game? At the same time…

 _Vaati_.

The man in the vision had been exactly like Vaati but at the same time not at all like the Vaati he knew. He seemed more confident in himself. Less cautious. Less afflicted with bitter cynicism. In contrast, the Vaati that Sheik knew was –

_Fractured._

He opened his eyes again, and turned his head ever so slightly to look at the sorcerer still passed out against his arm. His arm was becoming sore now, having had kept the same position for so long, but he couldn't bring himself to move it lest he disturb the tired mage. He remembered the panic attack from earlier, and how Vaati had crumbled into a rambling mess, witlessly frightened by the darkness he kept referring to as the void.

And then he remembered the man from the vision, the one the woman had called with the same name as the beaten sorcerer. Fearlessly confident.

With another sigh, he carefully pulled the cloak draped against Vaati's arm so that it covered his exposed shoulders. It was probably best that he remained in Asphodel for a while longer, even though he was logged on much longer than the recommended hours of play. At least not until Vaati woke up again, and he could make sure he was okay.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor kiddo. I'm not sure how clear it was from the text, but Vaati's panic attack is triggered when low sensory stimulation environment triggers his time back in sword jail. By the time Sheik finds him he's worked himself up to convince himself that he'd been in the sword all along, and that nothing in the past month actually happened. He's fallen quite far from when he was still a brash loud dummy from before he was put in sword jail repeatedly.
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter! I was looking forward to this one a lot, mostly because of the return of being able to write a "Rend-esque" or "WIR-like" Vaati at the end.


	17. Clarity

**Chapter 17: Clarity**

_It was always the same._

_Always the same._

_Always._

Everything was a tortuous repetition, including that voice in his head. His own voice, repeating itself, shouting, anything to keep the emptiness and silence at bay. The void that cycled, revisiting him with every failure and now, after he thought he'd escaped it he was back here again. How? Why? He wasn't calm enough to remember. He could feel himself breaking, splintering, and slipping away, the pieces of himself that he'd somehow managed to put together coming apart like shattering glass.

But then something reached him through the darkness. A weight of a hand on his shoulder, firm. Real. The voice in his head repeating itself in panicked breaths gradually faded when his focus momentarily moved to the touch on his shoulder. Before, he would have reached for the panicked voice again, because it was still better than the unbearable silence, but this time he allowed it to dim to an echo, the weight on his shoulder a comfort he'd missed.

Vaati waited, holding his breath, aware that he was waiting for something to appear from the darkness but not entirely sure of what. A few minutes (or seconds? hours?) passed and a splash of color appeared in the center of his vision, and footsteps echoed over the sound of muffled voices while the weight on his shoulder slipped away. His eyes greedily took in the new contours and color after being starved for stimuli in the darkness, and it took him some time to realize the colors he was watching had blossomed into a familiar scene.

He was standing (or floating?) inside Zelda's apartment, but he was actually there this time, physically, instead of observing through the lens of the SS. A lot of the colors were blurred like his eyes couldn't focus on them clearly, but there was one section that pulled his attention with sharp clarity and detail. It was the door into the apartment, and there was a soft beep and a click as the keycard opened the lock. The person who stepped through surprised Vaati, for he  _recognized_  Zelda, not as the Zelda of "this era" but as the one he'd encountered time and time again throughout the ages. She was wearing a beautiful dress, simple but elegant with its deep pink satin that swirled around her ankles when she walked. Her hair was still tied up in that same pony tail, but this time it was pulled together with a matching pink bow that she somehow managed to make it look youthful but not childish. He had seen this all before, he thought, hundreds of years ago…

Except it was different, too.

"Did you enjoy prom?" Nohansen asked from where he sat in the living room. Zelda tugged her heeled slippers off and shoved them nonchalantly in the corner while responding to her father with a noncommittal grunt. Nohansen watched her with a burdened smile. "You look just like your mother…"

And then Vaati saw her freeze, not long enough for it to be obvious, but long enough for him to notice that something was wrong. He could see her thoughts racing behind her eyes before she slowly closed her eyes and took a breath to compose herself. When she opened them again, she looked up at her father, beaming with a calculated, carefully crafted smile. "Yes," she said.

He'd seen that expression before, a long time ago before his last slumber. It was the smile of someone who'd learned to shoulder the burden of being someone they were not for the sake of those around them.

As Vaati watched the scene, he had a passing thought in the back of his mind, wondering why he was watching something from Sheik's past. Just as he turned that thought over, the colors faded and his eyes snapped open, bringing him back to the waking world.

He was lying on his side, his cloak draped over his shoulders like a blanket. The earth was cool next to his cheeks, suggesting that it hadn't been too long that he'd been in this position. In front of him, someone had stuck a single torch in the ground to stave off the darkness, and whatever firelight that hadn't been swallowed by the endless void danced across his weary face. As soon as he noticed the void, his fingernails dug into the dirt and he immediately sat up, tense. He could hear the voices in his head begin to clamor again, demanding him to tell them if he knew what was real.

But then one voice cut through the darkness, silencing the others briefly. "Vaati, are you awake?" He snapped his head around to see Sheik crouched by the fire beside him. The other boy almost blended in with the surroundings in his black rogue's armor, and the sorcerer wondered how long he'd been there.

 _What does it look like,_  his own voice snorted in response.

 _I don't know, am I?_ another added apprehensively.

Instead, Vaati bit his lip and looked around at his surroundings more carefully instead. His eyes were drawn to the fire flickering around the torch while he tried to remember what had happened to him. His thoughts were distracted, and he had trouble focusing as his mind kept wandering back to the stifling darkness surrounding them. Eventually, however, he managed to find some stability in his thoughts when he returned to thinking about the torch instead of trying to remember how he'd gotten here.

Where had the torch come from? It hadn't been there before.

"I had to log out for a short while to take care of myself in the other world, but I'm back now."

Vaati wrenched his gaze away from the torchlight reluctantly and turned back to Sheik. It took him a while for him to make sense of Sheik's words, and the rogue's worried, hovering demeanor. It almost felt as though Sheik was afraid of leaving him alone, like he was some… scared child who needed comfort.

Irritation rose in Vaati's chest, but it was quickly dulled as he gradually began to remember what had happened before Sheik had arrived. The irritation twisted into a sickening knot in his stomach when he remembered what it was that had gripped him with fear. He remembered how he'd promised Sheik that he wouldn't wander off without him, but when dull hours passed where his promise bound him from making progress, he'd been gripped with a listlessness he'd been unable to ignore. He'd convinced himself that, despite what had happened with Mothula, he didn't need to wait for Sheik like he needed some kind of chaperone. He was the Sorcerer of Winds. He was capable of making progress on his own.

He'd stepped into the dark tunnel.

And then he'd been back, trapped inside the sword.

It  _was_  the sword, wasn't it? He knew this boundless void. It had to be.

Soft leather brushed against his fingers, and he felt Sheik wrap his gloved hands around his, breaking him out of his thoughts. The rogue was studying him with a concerned gaze. Normally, Vaati might have pulled away from his grasp, but he could feel his throat closing and instead, clutched his hands tightly around Sheik's. The sensation of something solid in his hands served as a reminder that this was not the same prison as the empty void of the sword. Vaati remained tense and unmoving for some time, pushing down the familiar panic that was beginning to rise in his chest as he forced himself to focus on the touch of Sheik's hands in his. Once or twice, Sheik seemed to make a move to reach for his shoulder in concern, to comfort him, but the sorcerer's nose wrinkled into a snarl to stop him. He didn't need  _help_ , he just needed time.

After what seemed like hours to Vaati, he managed to control the flighty feeling clamoring in his chest, and silenced the distressed, incoherent thoughts scratching at his mind. Eyes closed, he took a final, long and slightly tremulous breath and counted to five. When he opened his eyes again, he was back to his stoic, calm, unreadable self, though he still appeared hesitant at letting go of the one reminder in his hands that this void was not the one from the sword.

 _How much did he see?_ Vaati wondered coldly as his eyes traced the concern etched into Sheik's face. Knowing the answer to his question, he angled his head away from the rogue's gaze. Sheik's expression was unbearable; he could only imagine how he judged him for how pathetic he'd become.

_No._

No, it wasn't that. Sheik wouldn't judge him, and that somehow made it worse. The rogue wouldn't think he was pathetic, he'd feel  _sorry_  for him. Pity him, see him as something that was powerless to do anything against something as silly as darkness. He'd seen that look on Sheik's face before, the same look on some wizened old man who'd thought himself a mentor. It was the look of someone who believed him to be a child who couldn't be left alone, lest he hurt himself.  _Patronizing_.

_They were just worried about you._

The whisper of logic only frustrated him further. Was he truly angry at that old fool, or at Sheik, or was he simply projecting his anger surrounding his own incompetency? He wanted to pull away with a scathing remark, to let it be known that he was angry, but the fear hiding beneath the surface of his anger held him back. His hands in Sheik's shook with rage, but they remained frozen where they were.

He'd completely lost control, and it… scared him? Angered him? It was a confusing mess of fear and anger, just like he was some kind of small, terrified, cornered mouse snarling at everything because it was afraid. And the fact that he was lucid enough to recognize this angered him even more, and worse still he had nothing tangible to direct his anger to. This wasn't who he was, he wasn't supposed to be like this. He used to be so much more, just –

_Fearless. Confident._

He remembered back when Hyrule was still Hyrule and people feared his name. He'd had grand visions and he'd had an almost naïve arrogance that he could do whatever he set his mind to, because he was in control. He'd never doubted anything he'd set his mind to, because he  _knew_  himself.

He'd probably laughed more often back then.

Vaati took another quiet breath, and then wordlessly stood up, unable to acknowledge Sheik's presence in shame at what he'd allowed the other boy to witness. Still holding on to Sheik's hand, he pulled the rogue up like he was taking the lead, even though he could feel himself waver upon facing the void once again. Vaati reached into the embroidered bag hanging from his waist for the compass and held it out in front of him. The needle pointed deeper into the darkness, and there was a small twitch along his brow as he stared at the vast lightless expanse.

There was a soft sigh beside him and firelight flickered nearby, indicating the rogue had picked up the nearby torch. "Why did you leave without waiting for me like you promised?" Sheik asked.

Vaati gritted his teeth.

_Because time spent waiting is time wasted. Because I can do this on my own. Because I am tired of having to depend on you to be able to accomplish anything._

_And because if you meet Ganondorf…_

Vaati maintained his stubborn silence, refusing to answer.

"After everything we went through and talked about, you recklessly went off on your own."

_Berating me like a child._

Vaati's fingers clenched around the compass tightly, claw-like, knuckles becoming white from pressure. His one eye unhidden by bangs suddenly glinted with an enraged ferocity in the darkness. "I can do this on my  _own_ ," he hissed. There was a lapse into silence, and he could feel Sheik's eyes on the back of his head, waiting expectantly. Vaati tried to will his legs to move forward to continue onwards with or without the rogue, but he found himself petrified. His feet were rooted to the earth.

Behind him, Sheik watched the sorcerer for some time before he finally said, "You can't."

The words, simple and blunt, hit Vaati like a sack of bricks. He turned his head sharply towards Sheik, eyes wide in disbelief and wondering if he'd misheard him. He'd never expected Sheik of all people to say something so tactless to him. Color began to creep up along Vaati's neck in fury.

Sheik continued with the same level, merciless tone. "You're shaking in your knees, don't tell me you're okay because you're not."

And indeed he was. There was a tremor in his legs that he couldn't stop no matter how hard he willed it. To deny it would have made him look more of a fool, but to have Sheik address so plainly what he'd been avoiding admitting was too much. "I'm… you…" Vaati spluttered, completely losing the composure he'd regained moments before. He tried to find his aloof, disinterested mask again, but Sheik gave him no breaks this time.

"I saw you earlier, Vaati."

To have the calm, gentle, patient Sheik who had, until now, continued to respectfully give him space, corner him like this was jarring and upsetting. His gaze wavering, Vaati tossed back the only words he knew to say when he was unwillingly pushed to an emotional cliff. "You  _wouldn't understand_ ," he snarled. He dug his heels into the ground, compelling his unsteady legs to stand firm, and dared Sheik to disagree.

" _Of course I wouldn't_."

Vaati blinked, the words like a swift punch to the gut.

_Huh…?_

Sheik hadn't raised his voice, but it had been stern enough to shut him up and listen. It had been stern, but not unkind; firm, but somehow as gentle and infuriatingly patient as ever. Vaati felt a tug on his hand, and he realized he was being led forward in the direction the compass had pointed by the hand he'd been holding this entire time.

"You never tell me anything," Sheik said, walking him forward without looking back over his shoulder at him. The rogue spoke softly, repeating the same words he'd spoken as Zelda back when they had been together at the park. At the same time, there was still something different about Sheik, like a rigidness that hadn't been there before. Was he…

Was Sheik angry…?

It hadn't ever occurred to him that Sheik would ever be angry at him. It should have been expected of course, but it was just that the blonde had been so tolerant of everything from the very beginning that he'd… well…

Taken it for granted, perhaps?

More than once he'd griped about how Sheik was so trusting of him when he knew nothing about him, and every time he'd brought it up Sheik would just smile and wave his words away. Now that the rogue was no longer smiling and seemed somewhat upset with him, Vaati wasn't entirely sure how to react. The kind of anger directed towards him wasn't one he was used to, either. He was used to people hating him and denouncing him as evil, but this? It felt uncomfortably similar to something from the depths of his past, like he'd disappointed someone who had –

_cared about him._

His train of thoughts confused him, and rather than snap at Sheik, Vaati allowed himself to be led forward into the darkness with little resistance. Tired from falling apart, tired from anger, tired from thoughts that made little sense to him, Vaati's brows knitted together in the middle of his forehead and he murmured under his breath defeatedly, "I was the most powerful sorcerer in the world." The words were only a half-hearted attempt to convince the rogue that he was wrong for accusing him for being weak. They were mostly spoken as words Vaati clung to like a child and his blanket, afraid of the dark. "I should be able to do this on my own."

"A person who can't ask others for help isn't strong at all."

The tiredness was pushed away from Vaati's expression once more as he took offense to what seemed like an accusation that he was weak. Sheik's words had hit a nerve, and a malevolent shadow passed across Vaati's face. "Other people will always disappoint you in the end." The sorcerer elaborated no further, but there was a weight to his words that suggested they drew from experience. Old, jagged scars cut deep by betrayal, hidden under a cloak of anger. He wrenched away from Sheik's hand, his fingers balled into fists as he stared after the rogue who continued to walk onwards without looking back.

"And that's why it takes strength to ask for help. It's not easy to place your trust in someone when they have all the power to betray your hopes. It isn't weakness to rely on someone, Vaati."

The sorcerer stormed after him, his wrath returning. "I don't need help when there is no one who can do what I can do  _better_."

There was a barely audible sigh from Sheik as he kept walking in the direction of the compass's arrow, and for a few seconds there was only the sound of their footsteps in the dark. He seemed to be mulling over whether or not he could temper his patience for a while longer. And then, "Do you know where you would be right now, without me? Not here. Not in Asphodel. You'll be in an SS with its batteries slowly draining with no way of charging the device yourself." The words poured, but were delivered in the same soft tone as before, not unkind but stern and unwavering. It was a brutal honesty that cut the quiet, retired air like the crack of a whip. "Do you know what would happen If Caph didn't help you? You wouldn't be able to use me as a ticket out of your SS."

Footsteps faltered, before they pushed on, somewhat shakily like they had difficulty following the one whose words cut deep. Until now, Sheik had done nothing but step around Vaati's insecurities, being careful not to overstep to the point it was almost coddling. Now, however, there was no such sensitivity, instead striking with but a few words where it stung the most. It could have been called vicious, if it weren't for the fact that there was always still an undertone of kindness and residual concern. It was confusing, and Vaati had never felt so bewildered and shaken that the conversation seemed to be slipping through his fingers. A part of him that had taken Sheik for granted, a part that he would never admit to having, whispered dumbfoundedly that this was  _not_  what Sheik was supposed to say. They were supposed to be supportive, never attacking. Where was this coming from?

And when Vaati finally spoke he surprised even himself, for it was not his usual self, the one he prided as being strong and confident, but the voice of someone who'd never been told to take a good hard look at themselves by someone who truly saw him for what he was. "What do you want, Sheik?" he snapped. Angry. Defensive. "Do you want me to tell you how broken I am, is that it? Do you take joy in taunting me about what I've been reduced to? Do you think I don't  _know what I must look like, now?"_

Sheik ignored him, walking forwards without so much as acknowledging the sorcerer behind him. Enraged with wounded pride, Vaati fumed after him, counting the seconds as he waited for a response. Just when he'd run out of patience on waiting out the tortuous silence that the rogue seemed to have condemned him to, Sheik slowed his steps, and then turned around to face him. "I just want you to be honest with me and also yourself. You endangered us both today."

And then there was a crack in Sheik's stern expression, until it broke and turned into a smile like the light breaking through the void just behind him. Vaati blinked, completely taken aback by everything: the words, the smile, and the light he hadn't noticed they'd found since he'd been too preoccupied by his own emotional turmoil.

Sheik laughed lightly at Vaati's expression, and then nodded towards the light seeping through a break in the darkness, like a doorway that hadn't been shut closed properly. They'd made it through the void without him falling into another panic attack. In the last two-thirds he'd made it with his own feet. Vaati blinked again, speechless at Sheik. Did he -

_Did he just distract me with anger to get through the darkness…?_

And yet, it hadn't simply been words to make him angry, no. Sheik's words stung, but he knew deep down that he was right. They weren't petty insults of the sort Veran tossed at him, or criticisms that aimed to extinguish his self-worth like those an old hat had once cawed. It was personal, like he'd been hit with words spoken by someone who actually  _knew_  him and saw him as he was, because they had taken the time to pay attention to him. The thought was humbling enough to shut him up.

He saw Sheik reach for the light, preparing to leave the void, and the conversation. He'd taken too long to respond.

 _No_.

He couldn't leave it like this. It wasn't that Sheik had expected a response, but he deserved more than his stunned silence. He pushed away his impulse that told him scornfully how he owed the rogue nothing, that he shouldn't stoop to saying the words he'd never offered to anyone else in his entire life.

"Sheik." Vaati reached for Sheik's hand, holding it firmly in his grasp. Sheik whirled around in surprise, though not before his own fingers grazed the light seeping through the crack in the darkness. As soon as Sheik touched the break, color rushed around them both, brilliant blue of a summer sky blooming above them and painting light over miles of lush, windswept plains. Beautiful flowers that mirrored the sky dotted the fields with blues. The place looked like the fields in Asphodel, but it was more vibrant and alive. Vaati took a deep breath, sunlight dancing across his face as he looked Sheik in the eyes. "I'm sorry."

He slowly let go of the rogue's hands, having said what he'd meant to say. However, he was surprised once again when he felt a pull and found his fingers entwined in the others'. He was met with the same expression of gentle, kind patience that had frustrated him before, but this time he wasn't frustrated.

All this time he'd misjudged Sheik.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for your patience, I know my break was rather long this time :')  
> And thank you so much for your support, I know I am more quiet over here compared to my main account on ff.net but it means a whole lot I promise you


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